Complete strangers say odd things to me sometimes. And it’s not just asking for directions.

Middle-aged tipsy lady on the way to the football one Friday night: It’s that man off the TV!
Me: [non-committal]
Lady: Yes, you are… who are you… the opposition health spokesman or something?
Me: Umm no, I’m a public transport advocate.
Lady: That’s it! Well you come across very well.
Me: Thanks.

Lady behind the desk at a clinic where I’d taken my dad: What did you think of the budget?
Me: [confused look]
Lady: I know who you are.

Cop standing next to me on the (packed) train last Friday night, as heaps of people got out at Glenhuntly, to another cop nearby: This might be the end of the zone.
Me: It’s because this is the last carriage, and the exit is back there.
Cop: [Looking over at me] Ah… well you’d know, wouldn’t you.
Me: Uhhh… sometimes.
Cop: How is the public transport tonight?
Me: Crowded! The last train was cancelled.

Elderly lady in Big W: Do you work here?
Me: No.

(Related: Recognition)

It’s that one day of the year… when the 7:30 Report isn’t on at 7:30.

Other than that, today…

I’m tired.

Both kids were home sick today, coughing their guts up. Wears you out. (Maybe I’m not feeling 100% myself.)

Bank account almost drained for the month.

My eldest son Isaac officially became a teenager.

I goofed by (yet again) ordering some of his presents by mail order, and they’re running late. Sigh. I’ve got to stop doing that (though I know he’ll like them when they arrive).

On the bright side, I’ve been scanning in old photos from the 70s and 80s. A couple of them are quite prophetic. (And don’t I look cute!)

I also found proof I’ve always been a Cats fan.

Thanks to my mum for holding onto them all these years, and digging them out.

You wouldn’t read my blog for any kind of comprehensive analysis of course, but here are my initial impressions:

Means tested baby bonus for incomes over $150K; extra tax on cars more than $57K? Excellent! Dunno why some are complaining about hitting the rich. The rich can afford it. Welfare should be reserved for those who are struggling.

I get a tax cut. I didn’t really need it, but naturally, I’m not complaining.

Lots of money for roads. A pittance for PT… but it’s not for actual construction, only studies. Marginally better than nothing (which is what the Coalition did for PT), but FELLAS, have you noticed petrol and oil prices recently? It ain’t getting any better, neither are transport emissions, and building more roads doesn’t help. They shouldn’t have promised them in the first place, but unfortunately they are still under the delusion that road expansion helps traffic congestion.

Some cutting back on fringe benefits lurks, which is good, but they haven’t yet pulled back on company car FBT, which costs $1.5 billion a year while encouraging more driving. Maybe that’ll come out in the tax review. Some other stuff towards fighting climate change, but nowhere near enough, and the roads spending doesn’t help. More funding for health and education is good.

Overall, not outstanding, not terrible. Could do better.

I’d generally consider myself a patient man, but one of the things that makes me cranky is customer service that doesn’t live up to expectations.

I don’t expect shopkeepers to grovel to me or anything, but I do expect them to at least attempt to make my shopping experience as smooth as possible — or if they can’t do that, then at least recognise that things aren’t going as well as they should be.

My sister keeps recommending a particular local greengrocer, so I went there last night after getting off the train. It was on my way, and I was in a hurry. I wanted spinach leaves (about the only “greens” the kids will eat without question) and a bag of carrots.

What I expected: To be able to find what I wanted quickly and easily.
What I got: No problems, found them easily.

Being after 5pm, it probably wasn’t their peak time. Of the four registers, only one was in use.

What I expected: If a queue developed and more staff were available, they’d open another register.
What I got: A customer with a fair amount of stuff was in front of me, and the lady was moving slowly through it, continually querying the price (”Was this from inside, or outside?”) Other staff members were standing around doing nothing. Maybe they were hanging out for home time. Another customer behind me asked if they could open another register. Grudgingly, it seemed, they did.

I should have switched queues, of course. But others jumped over before me, and soon there was another customer buying a fair bit of stuff who I’d have to wait behind, so I stayed put. The lady had finished tallying up the items for the guy in front of me, and he gave her his card. He had to tell her twice that he wanted it on Credit. She wrestled with the card machine, and it spluttered forth a tangled receipt. She called to someone else to see if it was all right, and the receipt was taken for examination.

What I expected: While we waited, that either she or another staff member would offer to ring up my items on another till, such as the one right next to her.
What I got: I stood there. She stood there. The other customer stood there. After half a minute I asked if she could use the other till so I could pay. A light went on, and she realised that would be a good idea, and she did so.

My items came to $2.80. I handed over a $5 note. She scrabbled around in the till, and, finding no bigger coins, starting counting out 20 cent coins.

What I expected: Some kind of acknowledgement that she was weighing me up with my bodyweight in silver. Seriously, the people in most other shops that I’ve encountered always apologise if they’re giving you a lot of coins.
What I got: 11 x 20 cent coins to stuff into my pocket. No acknowledgement.

And I was on my way.

Was it bad service? Perhaps more like mediocre service. None of it seemed malicious, but it was neglectful enough to ensure that given the choice I’ll go to one of the other local greengrocers in future.

Which is a shame. None of this is rocket science. It just takes a little vigilance to see when there’s a problem, and fix it if possible — rather than having it pointed out to you by your customers.

My street is a leafy side-street, well away from industrial land. We see the supermarket trucks rolling through our suburb, but other than that, few big freight vehicles are seen. In fact a bigger volume of freight probably goes through Bentleigh on the steel trains from Hastings than on trucks on the streets.

Not so for residents of the western suburbs, particularly the inner-west. Even in streets that are residential (and have always been so), the juggernauts go through constantly.

So it’s easy to understand why the Eddington report’s Truck Action Plan was greeted with acclaim. It says they’ll get trucks off residential streets. Sounds great, doesn’t it.

Well, it is, and it isn’t. The off-ramp on the Westgate to give trucks access into the port without going down Francis Street, for instance, sounds extremely logical. Shame an on-ramp can’t be provided too, but evidently the gradients would be too steep.

But another part of the plan involves road widening along Ashley Street and Ballarat Road, and flagging that as a truck route in and out of the port.

Some of Ashley Street is industrial, and you can see along there that VicRoads have obviously been planning this for a while. Much of the street has plenty of space for widening.

But Ballarat Road though is a completely different story. Most of it is residential. Throw in some churches, shops, a couple of new apartment blocks, and heritage elm trees… it’s going to get messy. Not that VicRoads hasn’t been planning ahead here too — around Droop and Gordon Sts, it’s very apparent that they’ve already bought a number of properties, ripe for flattening (if they haven’t been already).

(pic: whereis.com)

Cunningly, VicRoads say they’re not currently buying land for this. At least, not in response to the Eddington report. Of course not! They can’t respond to the Eddington report until the government says they’ll go ahead with that part of it. Besides, some of it is already bought!

So anyway, not all of the Truck Action Plan sounds so good anymore. It’d be great to get trucks out of residential areas, but not so much use moving them to other residential areas. All credit to Yarraville-based MTAG, who seem to recognise this.

We all know widening the road will lead to more traffic. Not just truck traffic, traffic in general. (OK, maybe we don’t all know this. The Premier seems to think motorways are actually environmentally friendly!)

How about spending some money on getting more freight onto rail, instead? Y’know, like, in line with the government’s goal of 30% of port freight on rail by 2010. (Currently: 15%, and dropping!) Most freight heading out of Melbourne would be more efficiently sent by rail. Even local Melbourne freight would benefit if trains took it from the port to localised freight hubs (as has been proposed in some circles) in industrial areas like Dandenong, Altona and Somerton.

And if in the longer term the main port is moved to Hastings, won’t most of the trucks go with it?

Why do some people quote their phone numbers in funny ways on voice mails?

Most Australian phone numbers come in two varieties:

A local number, eg 7010 5105. (Let’s ignore the two digit area code for now; it’s not usually relevant in voice mails).

Or a mobile number, eg 0491 570 156.

How I’ve written them above is pretty much the standard, and that’s how I expect them to be quoted verbally. It’s no accident — with local numbers, the first four digits determines the phone exchange.

So I have enormous difficulties when someone decides to vary that, which often happens if they decide that part of the number repeats, so they should emphasise that, for instance 70 105 105. Or quoting a mobile number like a landline: 04 9157 0156. Something in my brain doesn’t scan the verbal input properly, and I have to hear it again to be sure I’ve written it down right.

It’s doubly difficult if in a voice mail they only say it once, and too quickly.

Please, stick to the formula.

I love the concept of commuter cycling. While my trip to work is a little too far, I love the idea of riding to places like my sister’s house or my mum’s house or my dad’s place (all just a few km away) on the bike.

I love the idea of taking the whole family out for a ride, and as oil prices continue to climb, seeing lots of other people taking up cycling too. If it happens in a big way, the roads could be less busy, the air less polluted, and people would be fitter.

And then I see reports like this: some moron in a car deciding he doesn’t like being delayed by a group of cyclists, deliberately intimidating them, and then causing an accident before driving off.

There’s just no getting around the fact that you’re vulnerable on a bike. And one dickhead who doesn’t like the look of you can wipe you out in a second.

Call me a wimp if you like, but while I do enjoy recreational cycling, I continue to prefer — most of the time — walking, PT and, when I have to, driving.

Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Figures also included pedestrian fatalities, but I figure that’s skewed as pedestrian trips are almost always much shorter than those by mechanical transport. Be nice to find some more up-to-date Australian figures, too — these are from the 80s. My Googling didn’t find anything better.

Update 8am Friday: James makes a good point — wouldn’t per travelling hour be a fairer comparison? Yep, here it is. Note cycling is about as safe as car driving in these terms.

Last week I gave $100 to my old school’s building fund.

I figure I can give at least double that to Burma cyclone disaster relief.

Donations in Australia can be made through:

• Care Australia
• Red Cross
• Save The Children
• Caritas

There’s probably others; these are the first four I found. For those overseas, Google has a page for donations to Unicef and Direct Relief — this appears to work for all countries, not just the US.