Just had an interesting dream. I dreamt that I woke up at 11:48am (according to the clock) today. (I’d intended to get up and out early, with a planned half-day at work followed by various errands before the shops shut for Christmas.) Somehow I’d slept through the alarm. Despite it being late, I was very ... [More]
For the past year or two, Lego have advertised heavily around Christmas time on billboards and in newspapers. Surprisingly, they don’t direct you to the Lego web site, but say to search for “Santa’s little helper”. This is tied into their advertising for those keywords on Google, which goes through to their web site with ... [More]
Some thoughts on the new state government, and trams
(There are several versions of this song on Youtube. I like the versions with his full band, but this one — which appears to be with Uncle Bill — is excellent.)
Pondering the fact that I’d browsed both dstore.com.au and estore.com.au, I was curious as to what others exist… astore.com.au — watches and jewellery bstore.com.au — Birkenstock shoes cstore.com.au — forwards to Codagenic, selling an ecommerce platform dstore.com.au — all sorts of stuff; been around for years estore.com.au — geeky stuff; a division of City Software ... [More]
Isaac and Jeremy have gone to Hawaii for Christmas with their mum and her family. The Hawaii weather forecast appears to say that today it’s 28 degrees (C) and mostly sunny. Given the weather today in Melbourne, I’m beginning to get quite envious. Oh, is that thunder I hear now? Even better! I know we’ve ... [More]
What can you say about the tragedy off Christmas Island? A Custom Department spokeswoman this morning confirmed the death toll had risen to 30 after a fragile Indonesian fishing boat packed with up to 100 asylum seekers was smashed against the island’s jagged limestone coast. Obviously there’s a whole sequence of events that has led ... [More]
The secret door at the post office that I highlighted back in June now has an explanatory note: So it’s lost some of its mystique, though of course it’s better to actually explain to people what it is and how they can use it.
The electorate office of new member for Bentleigh, Elizabeth Miller, has been vandalised. The stencil, which reads “Long live the queen” with an image of Miller, appears to indicate some preparation was involved. Given the “The king is dead, long live the queen”, I can’t work out if this is pro-Miller, or pro-ex-member Hudson, or ... [More]
Much of the gossip and all the knowledge of a neighbourhood flows through the local shopkeepers, none more so than the hairdressers and barbers, where customers are most likely to have an extended conversation. The two nuggets of information from my haircut last week? I already knew this: breakfast is the most important meal of ... [More]
I am not totally convinced that this attempt to beautify the street furniture around Bentleigh really works. I mean sure, the benches… but the rubbish bins? I assume this is cheaper/quicker to do than hanging up decorations from the street lights, as has been done in the past. That’s so awkward that one year when ... [More]
In a crowded train the other day (caused by a cancellation), both I and another bloke got up at the same time to offer an old lady senior citizen of the female persuasion a seat. He caught her eye first, but as it happens another lady in need of a seat got on at the ... [More]
John Lennon died thirty years ago yesterday. He was as old then as I am now. It would have been the following day, thirty years ago today, when the news broke in Australia. I remember getting home from school and switching the television onto channel 9, probably to watch Skippy or The Curiosity Show. A ... [More]
I find it a little difficult to accept the big retailers’ claims that ensuring GST is applied to mail order goods ordered online from overseas will make a big difference. GST is only 10%. Take for example the DVD of Edge of Darkness, which I mentioned the other day. Amazon UK price: 3.97 + 3.68 ... [More]
A sign of the times: former Bentleigh MP Rob Hudson’s office, now vacated and up for rent. I wonder if anything gets handed across to the new member Elizabeth Miller’s office? In Federal land, Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt took over former member Lindsay Tanner’s office, but I suspect there was a big clearout ... [More]
This month it’s 25 years since the landmark mini-series Edge of Darkness concluded its first screening. I’m guessing I saw it a year or two later, and it remains one of my most favourite pieces of television ever… in fact it probably sparked my interest in the late-80s and early-90s in British television drama, particularly ... [More]