Categories
Melbourne TV

The Neighbours Bus

You may have heard of it, well here it is in the flesh. Spotted and snapped “in the wild” last week on my handy-dandy mobile phone camera… The official Neighbours tour bus, roving the city looking for English tourists to whisk out to Vermont South where they film the show.

Categories
Clothes

Drycleaning

In my neck of the woods, drycleaners seem to have a permanent “three for the price of two” deal going on. It’ll cost you about $7 to get one item cleaned, but about double that for two or three. It means when I have an item that is in dire need of cleaning, I’ll pontificate  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

A visitor

I got home this afternoon, and walked into the livingroom only to spot a mouse in the fireplace. Apparently disturbed from its rodent activities it scurried away. It peeked out a little while later and had a good look at me. As soon as I moved it did another runner. As anybody would, I found  ... [More]

Categories
Doctor Who

Are you my mummy?

The Doctor Who episodes The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances won the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation, short form, beating other worthy contenders including Battlestar Galactica, much to Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell’s surprise. So how are we all enjoying the 2006 series? Overall, I’m loving it. And in keeping with my one-year-old tradition, here’s  ... [More]

Categories
Friends and loved ones

Happy birthday to me

Turned 36 today. Biggest present: A big framed print of what is probably my favourite painting, Collins Street, 5pm (John Brack). Other presents: Books to read, CDs and DVDs to listen to and watch, a really nice (and expensive) dinner at Il Solito Posto, a really nice (probably inexpensive) home-made dinner and birthday greetings by  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism

A year in

So, after almost a year of having a mortgage, how’s it all going? I expected an impact on my spending. Nothing terrible, and I wouldn’t have taken it on if I thought I couldn’t sustain it. But the monthly repayment is about double what I had been paying in rent, and I’m no millionaire, so  ... [More]

Categories
Health

Grey

I had a haircut the other day. As the locks fell to the floor, it almost seemed like there was more grey than black (very dark brown actually). But maybe that’s because the grey was most visible. At least I hope so.

Categories
Home life music

Let’s do the timewarp again

The school concert was last night. I’m sure I don’t remember us doing these kinds of full-blown all-of-school proper-concert-hall events when I was in primary school. But the kids all seemed to enjoy it. And the bar was open before the event started, to help the parents… uhh relax. Danny Katz (whose kids go to  ... [More]

Categories
News and events

Citizen media

Two of the biggest local media outlets are going great guns encouraging citizen media: The Age and Channel 7, joining in a trend increasingly seen worldwide. Both have been increasingly encouraging contributions in the past couple of years, from web and phone polls to running footage or photos taken by members of the public. Of  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Why most people don’t use public transport

Despite petrol at record prices and traffic congestion, most people still don’t use public transport. Its share of the market sits stagnant at about 8% or so. Why? Because most people will only choose PT over driving when it’s convenient: when it goes where you want to go, and when it’s frequent. How frequent is  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

Unaided flight

Memo to self (and anybody else listening): Only put rugs with rubber backing onto wooden floors. They’re extremely slippery otherwise, as I discovered this morning, when getting ready for work. I was in a bit of a rush and attempted to run to go turn off the computer. I had shoes on, and my grip  ... [More]

Categories
books Memes rule, pass it on

Literary meme

I was tagged for a literary meme. 1. One book that changed your life I’m struggling a bit to think of anything, but if I had to nominate something, I’d probably say Ben Elton’s Gridlock. It’s not an earthshattering philosophical work, but I think it (subconsciously) triggered a lot of my thinking about issues I’m  ... [More]