Sign of the times
Spot the difference between these two signs warning of window washers at work above the footpaths in the city…
Exhibit A, Manchester Lane:
Exhibit B, Collins Street:
The second crew actually did have a woman in their number.
I wonder if eventually all companies will phase out the former version in favour of the latter.
I know you, but I don’t know from where
It seems to happen in degrees.
Case one: At lunchtime yesterday I passed one guy in the street who I knew I knew, but couldn’t quite place. He knew me too; we exchanged grins. Thinking about it later, I’m pretty sure I’ve worked out where he’s from.
Case two: Then on the way back I passed another guy who greeted me by name, but I can’t place at all.
Case three: Someone else I ran into a few days ago said “Hi Daniel, how are you?” and all I could vaguely say back was “Good thanks!” as it took my brain a few seconds to register who he was. Gary. Oh, he’s gone.
Case four: passed a guy in a lift lobby. Ah, at last someone I can positively and instantly identify and greet. Hi Jim.
1 out of 4 isn’t a great hit-rate. Maybe someone can come up with a pair of sunglasses with a heads-up display and face-recognition software of some kind for this type of thing. Wouldn’t that be handy?
- Some people I have no trouble in recognising
Tags: people, recognition
14 comments
Someone broke The Age
Either someone broke The Age’s web site, or there’s just no news worth reporting. Or maybe it’s a Fairfax cut-back?
(Oh, it’s back now.)
Tags: The Age, web sites
2 comments
Happy birthday to me
Last year of my 30s starts today.
While I’d love to have a lazy day at home and a big party, I haven’t been organised enough, so neither will happen. Instead it’ll be a work day, punctuated by breakfast with my boys, lunch with my girl, and dinner with my Posse of TroUblemAkers — family catchup will be on the weekend.
Tags: birthdays
17 comments
Flat Stanley’s visit
I’d completely forgotten about this until Marita reminded me of it last week. For some reason I didn’t blog about it at the time. Better late than never.
A couple of years ago (actually, 2006, when the kids looked much younger than they do now) Flat Stanley (this one from friends in the USA) came to visit us. Rather than just chuck him back in the mail with a postcard, we showed him about the place before sending him home.
Tags: Flat Stanley
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Shuffling the dishes
One of the things I sometimes do is put the iPod on random play shuffle while I do the dishes (that is, the dishes that can’t be efficiently washed in the dishwasher).
I find that because I can’t readily skip to the next track, I end up hearing stuff from my music collection that I’d forgotten about, and often enjoy more than I thought I would.
This week’s unexpected highlights:
Missy Higgins — Don’t Ever — a hopelessly romantic ditty, the opening line “Let’s take the train to anywhere” grabbed me because I occasionally ponder (like the obsessive that I am) the portrayal of sustainable transport in art, including music. I like the way her singing style is unashamedly Australian.
Deborah Conway — Under My Skin — excellent song, off String Of Pearls. Makes me want to play the whole album, in fact.
Billy Bragg — Sing Their Souls Back Home (band version) — Tony implied on Twitter recently that the album wasn’t doing much for him, but I do like this song, Billy’s call out to the soldiers serving overseas. Has a touch of the gospel about it.
Of course, it has its down side too. As I finished up the dishes last night, I had to listen almost all of Jimmy Little’s version of Quasimodo’s Dream, which I was totally not in the mood for.
Two urns lost
Overnight Australia lost the Ashes, after losing to England by 197 runs.
You can hear the joy in Stephen Fry’s voice in this short audio post on the subject:
And this weekend my footy tips tanked with just 4 out of 8. With only one more round to go, I now have no chance of winning the Anthony Malloy “memorial” trophy, the truly horrible urn which once adorned my house for an entire year.
So at least there’s some good news from the weekend’s sport.
Tags: cricket, footy tipping, The Ashes
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Spot the odd one out
The Saturday Age’s property section has a bit on pages 2-3 called Private Property, where they highlight various homes for sale, and note who is selling them, and their claim to fame, such that it is.
Spot the odd one out from yesterday’s edition:
- Frankston car dealer and philanthropist Gary Lechte
- Maryann Jesudason and her husband Mohan, the chief executive of gaming at Tabcorp Holdings
- Architect Jon Friedrich and interior designer Ros Friedrich
- Kerry Armstrong, one of Australia’s most popular and hardest-working actors
- The director of health food importers Kadac, Jim Dick and his wife, Suzie Cole
- Healthscope boss Bruce Dixon, and his wife Sue
Yes, that’s right — Kerry Armstrong. This weekend they managed to find someone you’ve actually heard of. Amazing.
I suppose it’s a legitimate marketing tool to highlight properties in this way.
What I’m wondering is if I ever decided to sell, could I get in here? I manage to occasionally bob my head into the public eye. Hmm, maybe I wouldn’t be obscure enough?
Perhaps the bigger problem is there’s no way my place would rank in the size/price range they highlight — the cheapest this week is in the “more than $1 million” range.
Tags: advertising, real estate, The Age
2 comments
