I’ve got a small lump on my thigh. Not painful at all. Probably harmless, the GP said, but he wrote me a referral to get it removed. He asked if I private health insurance. Nope. I gave it up several years ago. It cost me thousands each year (and increasing) and rarely paid out anything ... [More]
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Another wisdom tooth bites the dust
I had a second wisdom tooth out on Saturday — bottom left, the counterpoint for the top left which I had extracted back in 1998. The dentist had said it was best it came out now. It was moving upwards anyway, due to no pressure from the top left one. Worse, cleaning around it was ... [More]
Another in my collection of photos from ten years ago… Murrumbeena, in the days of M>Train. I quite liked the logo and slogan (“Moving Melbourne”) — less sure about the colours, and of course the splitting of the network into different operators was silly. 2003 was probably the best fall of snow at Mount Donna ... [More]
How often does the Myki reader in the middle at the main entrance to Bentleigh station break down? Thanks to my archive of Tweets, the answer is: at least seventeen times since the start of 2010. Two of three #Myki scanners at Bentleigh stn this morning were inoperable, displaying this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielbowen/4544311585/ — Daniel Bowen (@danielbowen) ... [More]
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Live-blogging the plumber
Drain has been blocked for a while. Sometimes it clears itself. Not this time. I couldn’t find the plumber’s details from last time, and ended up ringing Drains Direct. (How could I blog the plumber’s visit, yet not keep track of his contact details? How stupid of me.) 8am. Plumber arrives. Wants to look at ... [More]
If you missed it in the Sunday debate, or yesterday on social media, here’s the 30 second summary of Tony Abbott’s transport policy.
The government argues that cross-city traffic is so critical that the they want to (without a mandate) spend $8 billion building just the first phase of the East-West tunnel. If that’s the case, then why does the newly remodelled (2008-2010) M1 corridor only provide two lanes in each direction for those cross-city trips? Eastbound (coming ... [More]
One thing I really really hate about spammers is how they often insist on the bottom of their email that you’re receiving their crap because you subscribed to it. They know it’s not true. I know it’s not true. Along the same lines are these types of letters, one of which I received yesterday. The ... [More]
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The Hobbit part 1
Finally got around to watching The Hobbit part 1. I thought being the first of three films, and at 2 hours 45 minutes, it would drag a bit, but it really didn’t. Nicely done. Cumberbatch really nailed Smaug, didn’t he. I can just see him going into a studio to record his voice for part ... [More]
You might recall a while ago I posted about the lack of awareness of $3.50 cheap weekend fares, and frequent (every 10 minutes) trains on some lines on weekends. Well, finally PTV are promoting both. This is a step forward. It’s a shame the imagery in the frequent trains ad uses the outer stations’ buildings ... [More]
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I am not the new Doctor Who
Despite how it may look, I am not the next Doctor Who. We went along to the Astor Theatre on Saturday to watch the two 60’s Dalek movies — back from that curious time in British TV and film when they often seemed to remake television shows as big screen movies — in this case ... [More]
Some best ofs in my current favourite lists. Best derivatives While most of the music on my favourites list are original compositions, here are some cover versions and songs that sample others that I currently like a lot: Something For Kate — Born To Run — I almost like this more than Springsteen’s original. P ... [More]
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The central heating stopped working
As you can see, I just love getting up in the roof and having to try and get the heater working. Not that it happens often, but yesterday the heater stopped going. Following the relighting instructions, the pilot will light, but after waiting the specified minute to switch it to full On mode, goes out ... [More]
Today Metro shuts down its SMS Alerts service. It has been running since September 2001, when it was introduced (the day before 9/11), initially for Connex Connector Plus (Connex-only yearly ticketholders) — and back when Connex only covered half the rail network, of course. It spread to all customers and all lines later, along with ... [More]
An article in The Age today notes that while there were a few issues, last weekend’s inaugural PAX Australia video game festival went well. We went along on the Sunday, and had a good time. We avoided the sessions with long queues, and instead saw an XBox launch event, played some games in the retro ... [More]
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The good stuff
After suffering through several days of a bad cold this week, I finally decided to seek out medication. I remember years ago using Codral Day And Night to get through it… but then a little later, having no success with what appeared to be the same medicine. Turns out there’s “New” Codral, which does little ... [More]