A special charity episode with David Tennant and Billie Piper just aired in Britain, and is available online for a little while. (Though so far, I can’t get it to play. I assume that’s a heavy load, rather them blocking it for non-UK viewers.)

This looks vaguely familiar: Cybus Corporation.

I’ve just ordered the 9th Doctor boxset (the one with all the special features). At just under $100 (including postage) from Amazon UK, it’s substantially cheaper than the (almost exhorbitant) $150 asking price in Australia, and I should get it a week or two before the AU release.

My old house is now available for rent. They must have taken the picture a few weeks ago, because you can see my car in the driveway in the picture.

Two typos in the headline. Good effort.

“separate meals area” — I don’t see that myself. It’s pretty much in one room with the kitchen, separated only by the very attractive lime-green peninsula bench.

“central bathroom”? — Well, if you call “down the back of the house” central, then yeah, I guess so…

“lock up garage” — Not the last time I looked at it. Unless you define a block of wood used as a primitive latch to be a lock.

Ah well, it had its faults, and I certainly did my share of whinging about it. But it was home for two years.

(Now, if I can just get the agent people to talk to each other. One rang yesterday and left a voicemail trying to arrange a time for inspection, apparently unaware that one of her colleagues has already accepted the keys back, done a final inspection and paid me back the bond.)

Ajisai Japanese Restaurant, 377 Centre Road, Bentleigh — across the road from Zagarellis, but couldn’t be more different. Very nice food, generous servings, reasonably priced, unobtrusive but quick service. Green tea icecream for dessert. Delicious.

My quest to find more good restaurants in Bentleigh continues…

Socceroos qualified for the World Cup Finals, first time in 32 years… woo hoo!

On Thursday morning ABC radio 774 is running a special programme on Melbourne’s transport problems, with opinion from interested parties and 774 listeners.

774 ABC Melbourne’s Jon Faine will lead a special broadcast where we, with the help of our listeners, map the traffic and public transport problems, and black spots, across Melbourne.

Yours truly will probably make a contribution at about 9:30am.

(Unfortunately they don’t webcast, though the 8:30 to 9am section of the programme is usually available.)

Whoops, I forgot to mention this until now: the Doctor Who story that just finished on the ABC’s repeats last night, Warriors of the Deep, was the one that I used as the basis for my spoof: Doctor Who — Revenge of the Unrealistatrons. It’s still one of my favourite things that I’ve written.

A huge crowd for the demonstration against the Federal Government’s industrial relations reform package in the city today. Work commitments meant I couldn’t join in, but I did pass nearby and saw all the people.

This is the crowd outside Flinders Street Station at 9:50am, as snapped by the Omni webcam.

In the nearby arcades, the cafes were full of people getting their morning coffees before joining the march.

Later Marita rang from the end of the march, the Carlton Gardens, to gloat that they got a Paul Kelly performance of “Little Kings.”

PS. 8am Wednesday. The Age reports the crowd was between 150,000 and 210,000… the biggest ever for a rally in Melbourne. From what I can see, with such widespread opposition, including from church and welfare groups, there’s cause for great concern about the impact the laws will have.

The first automated payment to my home loan went through yesterday, along with the first interest charge. As one might reasonably expect, but I had not previously quite appreciated, in one fell swoop the interest charge wiped out around 85% of the payment. Were I a more emotional person, I might have screamed in anguish when I saw that on the screen in black and white. No wonder the bank fawn over me.

This ties in with what I’ve been told many times: the more dosh you can pay into the home loan, particularly in the early years, the better. A quick fiddling with a spreadsheet seems to indicate that if I can get an extra 50% onto it every month (which I would not expect to be particularly comfortable, but equally not impossible) I would be clear of the debt by 2019 (when I will be a spritely 49-year-old) rather than in 2033 (by which point I will be an aging 63-year-old).

Not only that, but the interest I would save would be (wait for this) in the region of a whopping two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. It sounds just as impressive if I write it in numbers, look: $214,000.

Maybe I should eat bread and cheese for the next ten years.

Perhaps not. But it does make me think that maybe I’ll hold off on some of the less urgent purchases I had planned.

<CheapskateMode>

• Stove and oven — ancient, but workable. I might be willing to put up with them for a bit, postponing until a later but more thorough kitchen renovation is necessary.
• Surround-sound setup — who needs 5.1 speakers when you only have 2 ears?
• Kitchen table — bah humbug, the current one fits. Just.
• New desk — okay I’m torn here. The current one is pretty damn ugly, and really doesn’t suit the room at all.
• and filing cabinet — ditto. Though maybe I can hide that in the back room.
• Couch — No getting around this one. It direly needs replacing.
• Rugs — I wonder if it’s possible to get something not excessively horrible at one of those endless rug sales they keep advertising on the telly?

</CheapskateMode>

Actually, some of this stuff would be good to have soon. I’m sure there’s a balance to be found between spending up big and paying off the loan fast.

I’ve also got the income protection people chasing me with a proposal. I have to admit that the prospect of money for my kids if I fall under a 703 is inviting, though the premiums aren’t. After all, if the worst happened, they’d get my (fairly healthy) superannuation, right? The key would be to ensure that the house increases in value, so they wouldn’t also get saddled with a big debt.

Tell you what, I’ll be getting my bond back from the old place in a few days. As soon as that lands in my bank account, it’s going straight on the home loan.