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.
Damn. After scouting around car insurance last week, and finding their premiums were all pretty similar, I went with AAMI, as they seem to have a good reputation, and they gave a grant to the PTUA a couple of years ago, so I know they’re (hopefully) good corporate citizens. But given I drive something like ... [More]
Most unexpected question from the media pack at 1 Treasury Place this morning: Should Premiers Lane have a possessive apostrophe? (That Brendan is a joker.) I gave a mock answer for that one, which wound up proceedings, and a quick discussion followed on the merits or otherwise of punctuation in street signs. As it turns ... [More]
Obviously I can’t predict any better than anybody else, otherwise I’d be rich, but I wonder if now might be a good time to put any Amazon orders in, before the dollar drops any further. (Source: Reserve Bank) PS. Cameron recently pointed out this company, which ships worldwide from the UK for free: The Book ... [More]
Yes, I’m selling the old beast. It’s a 1993 Mitsubishi Magna TR Executive sedan, dark grey, manual, 4 cylinder 2.6 litre, air-conditioned. Built in sunny Adelaide, it’s got about 215,000 kms on the clock. The tyres were replaced about 10,000kms ago. Rego is until late October, though obviously a Roadworthy Certificate needs to be obtained ... [More]
“I’m just going to Woolies.” “I need something from Woolworths.” Doesn’t quite sound right. But I guess I’ll get used to it, just as I did with Melbourne Central Station… and yes, I’m even getting there with Southern Cross Station (even though I still think that name change was silly). Age: Woolies shelves Safeway brand.
I almost did a double-take when I saw this on the news last night. Why? Because I recognised it as being this, snapped by me on my phone, and originally used on my blog: …plus a little bit of this, snapped by me and originally used on the PTUA web site… It looks like a ... [More]