Ate at Subway yesterday with the kids. I am seriously out of my depth there. Must have spent a good couple of minutes staring up at the menu before even daring to approach the counter. Eventually figured out what we wanted to order, and the woman behind the counter started asking the hard questions. Like “what kind of rolls?” and “would you like salad on it?” And I thought “Cheese?” was a simple question until she followed-up with “Which type of cheese?”

Eventually everything got ordered, made, and paid for. Thankfully nobody else was waiting in the queue behind us, though as we munched, the lunchtime rush arrived.

Not bad, for fast food. I’m not sure I believe all the “we’re healthy so nyah nyah” advertising, but it was pretty tasty, and certainly didn’t leave me with the guilts like the average burger and chips does.

Was chatting the other day to Tony about radio web casts from across the globe, and I was remembering how much harder it used to be before the age of the Innanet.

About 20 years ago I had a rickety old shortwave radio with which I used to listen to the BBC World Service. It only worked when the solar activity was minimal, and they used to switch frequencies at different times of day and year. But I was rapt every time I managed to pick up a signal and hear the words on the hour “This is London.”

With my sister and her husband having returned to Australia after about 3 years of being away (and for my sister, about 5 years away from Melbourne), I find myself explaining the little things that have changed while they’ve been away. Things that are new. They’ve been reading the news from overseas, they know the big stuff. It’s the little stuff.

Supermarket discount petrol vouchers.

Kath & Kim.

The Age Melbourne Magazine.

Water restrictions.

Eddie everywhere.

The inner-western suburbs aren’t cheap any more. Urban gentrification in general.

Fixed-line phones — Telstra’s multiple plans vs Optus vs everyone else.

Broadband (almost) everywhere.

Re-usable supermarket bags, and Bunnings’ bag surcharge.

Docklands.

Default speed limit 50kmh. And 40kmh school zones.

SMS train timetables and daily tickets on trams.

“Yeah, no.”

I haven’t explained all of these yet, but I’ll probably get to most of them eventually. What else has changed?

…

Update Wednesday 9pm. Some other things I thought of:

The price of petrol.

Half the bank branches vanished.

Chadstone got bigger. Southland got bigger and crossed the highway.

Westpac became Bank of Melbourne, now Westpac again.

State government led by “Hymie” (Mary Delahunty is now in politics, not TV).

David Jones Food Hall.

Daimaru gone, Melbourne Central completely different.

State Library expanded, Museum moved.

Gangland toll.

Hello The Greens, Byebye the Democrats.

Commercial TV station watermarks.

GPO.

Stamps went up to 50 cents.

Mobile phone number portability.

Fed Square. Batman Ave wiped off the map, in favour of Birrarung Marr.

VHS almost vanished.

Charity collectors with clipboards on every CBD street corner.

MX.

(Docklands continued) Wurundjeri Way and those other new roads. Telstra Dome.

MCG, Vodafone Arena. AFL Park.

The Lions have moved to Brisbane.

A pretty good Christmas haul. A brilliant (two volume) book, some DVDs, some chocolate, a groovy t-shirt, groovy CDs, and a stuff-yourself-all-afternoon Christmas lunch. I’ve got no complaints.

Tonight I tried to make nachos. I think I may have given myself excess cheese poisoning.

I was sitting at home, on my own in the dark, watching the news, about the tsunami disaster. Awful pictures of suffering people. (Now might be a good time to follow those international charity links I posted on Christmas Day.)

Then I picked up a book lying on the floor. Ethel and Ernest. I flicked through the last few gut-wrenching pages. That didn’t help at all.

• (Update 9am Tuesday). Some incredible pictures of the tsunami in Phuket, taken by a tourist (via David)

Here is my bookcase. Well, one of them, probably the most interesting one. There are others elsewhere in the house containing CDs and kids books; videos; boring geeky books and magazines.

If there is one thing I regret about my book collection it’s that in early adulthood I was so addicted to TV that I read a lot of crappy novelisations of my favourite TV shows. Most of them were a complete waste of time, when I could have been reading the kind of genuinely imaginative, innovative works that some Real Authors put out. (Currently reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon).

Post a picture of your bookcase… Link in the Trackbacks or comments.

• Move your mouse over the picture for descriptions of various bits (note Firefox may abbreviate. You can fix it with this extension — go to Tools / Extensions / Popup Alt Attribute / Options and turn on Show long tooltips in multiline)
• Past photos in this series
• Notes on creating the image map/hot spots with text

Here’s the Christmas tree late last night, with the presents at their most impressive. Slowly, today, the pile is being depleted.

I should just add that today would be a good day to spare a thought, and some cash, for those in need.

• Donate to Salvation Army (southeast AU)
• The Smith Family (AU)
• Red Cross/Crescent (worldwide)
• CARE (worldwide)

Christmas means different things to different people… some mark the birth of Christ, others the solstice, for some it’s just another public holiday, for many it’s a chance to spend up big on presents, max out the credit card.

I fall into the camp of using the day to get together with family, to give them all presents, eat way too much food (and yet have plenty of leftovers), and via Christmas cards (paper or electronic) I drop a line to those friends I don’t see very often (as well as those I see all the time).

For me this Christmas is special — my sister and her husband have returned from years of living away from home, to settle back in Melbourne.

They brought the news with them that I’m going to be an uncle.

Whatever Christmas means to you, hope you have a good one.

I have a once-a-year chance coming up.

In my kitchen is a six-pack of beer of a brand that I don’t normally drink. I think someone left it after the last party. I’d rather not take it to somebody else’s party, as I’d feel duty-bound to drink it, and like I say, I normally don’t.

Then I read an article about Christmas gifts left for posties and garbos and paper boys and so on.

Have times changed so much that it is inconceivable you would leave cash in an envelope addressed to the “paper boy” under the doormat, or bottles of beer for the garbo on the nature strip beside the rubbish bin?
…
A few people still leave beer out. It is taken back to the depot and divided between about 20 workers, he said.

Ah! Brilliant!

If perhaps a little insensitive to tee-totalling or alcoholic garbos. Hopefully there are none at my local depot.

PS 9:30pm. Oh no! Dilemma! I’ve just noticed they have a “best by” date of last April!

3:15pm Friday. I put it out anyway. And it’s gone. The main rubbish bin and paper recycle bin were no less chaotically situated than usual, so I assume such gifts don’t necessarily buy you any favour.