So much for Weekly/Monthly/Yearly tickets being valid in any zone on weekends. From January this benefit will be removed. You’d think they’d be trying not to discourage people from using these tickets, since they help cut down queues and encourage PT loyalty… but it looks like it’s a simplification of the rules to make implementation ... [More]
Leader Newspapers have joined ABC Local Radio in redesigning their web site into a hideous, difficult to navigate mess. For instance, the Caulfield Leader, at www.caulfieldgleneiraleader.com.au, with a page showing the same news stories as the printed version of the paper, plus a few other links, apparently wasn’t good enough. So now it’s the ... [More]
I thought the police were having issues with high petrol bills. Apparently not, as they’re going to patrol nightspots in Hummers. Maybe instead they should have gone for Police Priuses. They’d be distinctive. Did you know that a Prius actually has more legroom than a Hummer H3? Seriously, inspired by a comment from Tony H, ... [More]
Tony spotted a hot air balloon above his house this morning. I spotted one in Collins Street at about 9:15am: I wonder if it was the same one?
Have you seen the pictures of the Large Hadron Collider to be switched on today? Wow. It just looks so sci-fi, doesn’t it. I don’t think it’ll destroy the world, but it almost looks capable of it. (It wasn’t invented by Osterhagen, was it? Oh, whoops — spoilers!) PS. The kids are looking on the ... [More]
Sigh. In retrospect I probably should have shut my big mouth rather than comment on the upgrade to Hamer Hall. UNIONS and community groups have slammed a State Government plan to spend $129 million on an Arts Centre facelift. “Patrons of Hamer Hall are lucky they’re not seeing performances in the same conditions that public ... [More]
M and I were heading from her place in Footscray to her friend Clare’s party in Armadale. Train into the city, then either: train to Armadale (quicker, but a 15 minute walk) or tram 6 (slower but much closer). The train had just gone (next in 15 minutes), so we walked over to the tram ... [More]
When I was a kid, my dad would take us to Camberwell Civic Centre every April or so, to see the huge model train exhibition they had there. We’d wander around for a couple of hours and I would dream that one day I’d have a really big, detailed train set. Early on I had ... [More]
Too busy to blog this morning. (Reasons: 1 2 3 4 5) Found this article on a Chinese language web site. I can’t read it, so I fed it into the Google translator facility. I’m sure in the original Chinese, it’s completely grammatically correct — it’s the automated translation back to English that’s so entertaining. ... [More]
I got a bunch of good stuff for my birthday last month — books, CDs, a groovy t-shirt, some terrific framed old photos. One particularly good book was a book about street-artist Banksy. I hate stupid meaningless graffiti (and have been regularly contacting Connex about Glenhuntly Station… they’re not quite meeting their own “clean within ... [More]
Home again, still not well. Some kind of stomach bug combined with headaches. Blargh. Not pleasant. Meanwhile my sister is getting over a cold, some of the kids have had colds too, my mum’s been unwell, my dad’s had to go into hospital with a blood problem. It seems to be one of those weeks.
I’m at home today, not well. So here’s a brief post. I keep forgetting what this is called: Parkour closely related to Free running. Basically pedestrianism for superhumans. This video from Top Gear shows it off well. You can skip the first minute if you’re not interested in the Peugot 207 that James May is ... [More]
The zone system has its faults, such as anomalies with the boundaries, and a big jump in fares when you cross a zone boundary. But it’s one of the best things about Melbourne’s public transport. Its introduction in the 1980s led to a big boost in patronage, and in terms of ease of use, it ... [More]
So I took the old car for its Roadworthy Certificate in preparation for sale. I thought there might be minor problems to be fixed. But no. It failed in a most spectacular way. With fireworks, a brass band, a ticker-tape parade and 20 metre-high letters. It’s a write-off. Good for parts and scrap only. A ... [More]
Something I’ve been meaning to blog about for… oh, over a month. At the Climate Change forum last month, a question was asked about the car pollution impacts on cyclists. Elliot Fishman from the Cycling Promotion Fund (and who looks uncannily like my sister’s husband) replied that because cyclists are higher up, they don’t get ... [More]
The Age today has a give-away poster of the Art Deco exhibit Spirit of Progress ‘Matthew Flinders’ picture. It’s not quite as massive as the poster on the side of the gallery. Hmm, that’d make a great framed print for my house. Err, slightly smaller that is. Not sure where I’d put it though.