Given how their parliament occasionally carries-on, I wonder if the Taiwanese politicians campaigned on how good they are at hand-to-hand combat?

That level crossing smash near Geelong is tragic, and the government should do more on improving crossing conditions. But one radio jock was almost making excuses for the car driver, not just missing the Stop sign, the Railway Crossing sign and the rumble strips, but also not noticing the express train roaring down the line. Would the same apply if it had been a road intersection, rather than a level crossing, and the car had smashed into a B-double?

Fancy a bit of gaming on a Thursday night? Turns out you can present a valid Metcard at ACMI’s Game On (which I’m telling you, is excellent), and get in for the concession rate of $10.

I frequently use lifts that have two lights above the doors, one on top of the other. How is it that so many visitors to that building can’t figure out that when the top light goes on, the arriving lift is going up, and when the bottom light goes on, it’s going down?

Maybe I need to re-arrange the cards in my wallet. I’m concerned that the garish black and gold of my ATM card may be clashing with the green and yellow of my Medicare card.

How is it that this happens every year, every Good Friday? Almost every shop in the country is closed. And yet there’s a continual stream of cars into the supermarket car park, driving up to see if it’s open.

It’s not open guys. Almost nothing is open on Good Friday. The empty car park should have been a clue — the lights being on are just a red herring.

It was the same last year, it’ll be the same next year. Plan ahead and live for 24 hours without spending money.

Or go to one of the few places that is open: some bakeries, convenience stores, etc. I got fresh bagels and challah at Glicks.

And have a happy Easter.

Update Sunday: Same today, Easter Sunday, though it appears more things are open today, so perhaps it’s understandable.

When I first needed childcare, back in 2000, I first looked at council-run places. There were none without a long waiting list, so I looked at private. I found a place nearby called Wilmar, run by a lovely couple called Neville and Pat, with a handful of staff. So I signed the kids up there. It was based in two adjacent houses in Ormond, with a garden out the back with some chooks and other animals in it.

Jeremy, then about two, didn’t like it much initially. For a time I had to distract him each morning, by giving him a different coloured paperclip each day to show the staff. To my surprise several months later, they gave them all back in an envelope.

Anyway, both my kids went there on various days, until they reached school age. They both ended up enjoying it, and made friends there who went along to school with them too.

It was there, I think, that they picked up the theoretically insulting but ultimately inoffensive “silly duffer!” exclamation, which still pops up from time to time in conversation.

Over those years I earned an awful lot of credit card points thanks to Neville and Pat, but that’s part of being a working single parent, and I knew that the kids were getting good quality care from people who cared.

A couple of years ago when my sister was looking for childcare for her son Leo, I recommended Wilmar. She went along and signed him up there.

Then the news broke: Neville and Pat had decided to retire. They had sold the business to ABC Learning.

ABC Learning has been controversial at times, accused of being the McDonald’s of childcare: rapid expansion fed by cost-conscious budgets, and a cookie-cutter approach to operations which many said led to a decline in standards.

Nobody would begrudge Neville and Pat leaping at the chance to retire well. But my sister didn’t want Leo looked after by ABC Learning, and she moved him elsewhere. The last time I went past Wilmar, it was Wilmar no longer — it was ABC Learning Ormond, just another branch of Eddy Groves’ empire.

Now that empire is unravelling. ABC Learning’s share price (ASX: ABS) has plummetted over the past couple of weeks, before being suspended from trade.

Pat and Neville must be very pleased they sold up and retired when they did. They certainly weren’t silly duffers.

This is something we only get the chance to say every four(ish) years, so… Happy Leap Day!

Enjoy the extra day of summer. (If only, for those in Melbourne, it actually seemed like summer.) But remember… if today didn’t exist, it’d be the weekend already. (Hmm, not sure that’s right, is it?)

I nipped briefly out for a quick hot choccie with my valentine, with a wrapped box of chocolates and a card in an envelope.

I returned with an unwrapped box of chocolates and a card in an envelope.

They weren’t the same ones, honest. That would be a bit sad and tragic, wouldn’t it.

No, it seems we just thought alike.

I think one of the reasons I’m so pleased the apology is that it’s so rare for politicians to admit that they (individually or collectively) were wrong. That alone makes it a historic day.

Furthermore, we’ve got a lot of reasons to be proud of our country, and it seems only right that we should also recognise its failings. Being able to do so is a reason to be proud.

Given I was on the move at Apology Hour (9am), I tried to listen in on the radio, using my mobile phone, which unfortunately only gets FM stations. I thought Triple J was going to be carrying it… instead I found a news bulletin, followed by music. (Their web page said “from 10am” — WTF?) So I flicked around and found I had just missed it on Nova, and their hosts were talking about how moving it had been. Dammit.

In the I settled for TripleM, who played From Little Things, Big Things Grow by Paul Kelly (played later in the day outside Parliament by …was it Kev Carmody with John Butler?), then Treaty by Yothu Yindi. And then Jump by Van Halen. Ummmm… okay. I switched off at that point, and listened and watched later.

But no matter, the important thing was it happened. And it’s great to see so many people getting behind it.

• Download the apology, and Kevin Rudd’s speech
• Paul Keating’s Redfern speech, 10th December, 1992, which helped us get down this road
• Paul Kelly: Special Treatment

PS. Brendan Nelson is a goose.

A few weeks ago an Age Saturday crossword question about Anwar Sadat brought back some memories. While I remember well news of the deaths of John Lennon and Princess Diana, Sadat’s assassination was sitting there in the back of my mind. I recalled footage of chaos at a grandstand, which I suppose I’d seen as an 11 year old when it happened.

This morning I woke to the news that Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in Pakistan. I’m not sure what to make of it. Obviously they’ll be a big impact on democracy in Pakistan.

Meanwhile it was sad to hear of the death of a woman the other night in Flinders Street, hit by a car doing an illegal U-turn at speed. I don’t know how many times I’ve waited to cross the street at that spot. Reports say that the 26-year-old driver wasn’t affected by alcohol or drugs. One can only assume that it was the result of him being a completely reckless dickhead behind the wheel.

The news from the Bali conference reminded me a lot of the machinations during international negotiations on The West Wing. No doubt things would have progressed further if it was Jed Bartlett, not George W Bush, running the White House.

But you’ve got to hand it to the delegate from Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad.

Report in The Australian:

Then the head of the US delegation, Paula Dobriansky, spoke. “We are not prepared to accept this formulation,” she said, setting off loud, long boos in the hall.

This was the cue for delegate after delegate to take aim at the US.

Australia remained silent. But South Africa’s delegate called Ms Dobriansky’s intervention “most unwelcome and without any basis”.

“We would like to beg them” to relent, added the Ugandan delegate.

The delegate from Papua New Guinea leaned into his microphone. “We seek your leadership,” Kevin Conrad told the Americans. “But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.”

The UN climate conference exploded with applause. The US’s isolation was complete. No one spoke in support. And Ms Dobriansky capitulated, withdrawing the US objection.

Anybody know if this exchange is on video anywhere?

Update: Here it is. (Thanks Zzz)