I’ve taken a punt on Cup Day, even though I’ll be flying back from Adelaide about the time the race is on. The hot tip is that the Reserve Bank will decide to up interest rates on that day. In fact, the doom-and-gloom merchants at ANZ are predicting up to three rises in the next ... [More]
After all that neighbourly togetherness on Saturday, it was almost a moment of footpath rage yesterday. One of my pet hates is cars parked across footpaths. So when I saw one such a car while we were walking down to the library, I made a point of walking around it by going via the offending ... [More]
My goodness it’s neighbourly out there today. All I did was go for a walk to the supermarket, and on the way back had a chat with the bloke next door, taking his young kids for a short walk, who thanked me for last night letting him know his car lights were left on; the ... [More]
Apparently the mainstream media (and I guess the public) like nothing better than the tale of a flawed footballer. At one stage yesterday afternoon, the top three stories on The Age website were about Gary Ablett Snr’s car crash, Ben Cousins on the way to rehab, and Alan Didak’s acquaintance. And it’s not even football ... [More]
My sister and I recently bought our dad a microwave. Dad’s not a big technology fan. He’s at home with a typewriter and a telephone and a television, but that’s about all he needs and perhaps all he can handle. Jeff Atwood has illustrated perfectly the problems of microwave ovens: most modern models have a ... [More]
The water bill arrived, and gives me the first chance to see the difference the efficient shower-head I installed in July makes. Water consumption is down 20% compared to the same period last year, down from about 250 to 200 litres per day. And according to the little charts, we’re apparently using less water than ... [More]
Passed the scene of a scaffolding collapse on Thursday afternoon on Collins Street. Apparently nobody was hurt. But it all fell onto a 4WD. See what you get for driving your Toorak Tractor into the city?* On Friday morning I found this giant Christmas tree being assembled by Santa’s helpers disguised as construction workers… seems ... [More]
In case you hadn’t heard, there’s an election on. From yesterday’s Sunday Age “Heckler” page: THE DIRT: Politicians are trying to stack the outspoken Public Transport Users Association. The association is facing elections and there has been a flurry of nominations by Labor and even Liberal political staffers. What happens if Team Brumby takes over ... [More]
I was tagged by Clay for an animal meme. Though I suspect these answers won’t be terribly interesting. An interesting animal I had… I don’t currently have any pets. In the past it was goldfish and cats, and when I was very young, budgies. The one I had the longest was Sooty the cat, who ... [More]
I must be getting more domesticated… I look outside and see it’s a warm and windy day and think “wow, what a great day for washing.”
I was quite fascinated to listen to the start of The Conversation Hour on 774 Melbourne last Friday (MP3 available). Co-host Waleed Aly is very witty, and has a gift of being able to explain his Muslim beliefs and practices in terms that even the most ocker Aussies can understand. (01:15) Jon Faine: Is it ... [More]
Monday Perhaps ironically given a story in yesterday’s Herald-Sun about public transport causing stress, I got a bit narky on the train yesterday morning when a gaggle of De La Salle boys started mucking about with the train doors at Caulfield. With apparently no consideration for the other thousand people on the train, they blocked ... [More]
A Greenpeace report report commissioned by Greenpeace that came out last week says, among other things, that eating more kangaroos is better for the environment than eating beef, on the basis that less land clearing is required, and kangaroos don’t produce the methane gas released by cattle and sheep. I assume they’d also consume less ... [More]
For his birthday, Andrew asked for a few bloggers to post something on a topic of his choosing. He asked me for: The time you had such a bad experience on public transport that you rang the minister or one of his minions, or similar. I had a think about this, and I don’t think ... [More]
For all the problems you see around the world, Melbourne has, I think, been generally peaceful when it comes to race relations. Indeed, there are plans afoot to permanently implant some cultures’ businesses into particular city streets — an extension of the concept already used in Chinatown that would spread to the Greek precinct, the ... [More]
In what might become a tradition (by my count this makes the fourth time in the last few months) Premier Brumby and Public Transport Minister Kosky took a train ride yesterday to make an announcement, this time at Jolimont, then caught a train to Parliament. (You could tell Brumby doesn’t catch the train much; the ... [More]