Taking a "smart" bus to the airport.

Yes I did it, I took the Smart Bus to the airport. I am of course talking about route 901 which goes all the way from Frankston to the airport via Dandenong, Ringwood and other places. I did not travel all the way to the airport from Frankston though. Even though the bus actually runs through my suburb (Greensborough) I did not just walk the 1.5km from home to catch it, because even from here it takes a circuitous route through Plenty, South Morang, Epping and Roxburgh Park. I could have, had I wanted to, caught the other Smart Bus route that runs through Greensborough (the 902 which runs from Chelsea to Airport West) to save some time, and changed over at Broadmeadows rail station, but I did not.

Had I the time I most likely would have done the final option above. Not having as much time as I would have liked, instead I drove to Coolaroo station and parked the car and continued by bus to the airport from there. Part of the reason for this is to try and see if it is possible to avoid car park charges for one day trips.

Back at good old Coolaroo station

As I was walking from my car to the stop two more passengers turned up, a pair of Indian students.

While waiting for the bus a very large plume of brown smoke erupted from the housing area across the road, on checking google maps later I am fairly sure it was in a park. Those kids with matches caused a number of fire engines and police cars to go speeding past.

All of a sudden there was a lot of smoke

Then the fire trucks and police cars came.
All within a few minutes of the smoke.

Ten minutes or more passed before a bus arrived at the stop. The bus was either really late or really early as it did not arrive at the timetabled time, and there were no real time info screens at this stop for this direction.

This was the first time I have used my myki on a bus so I was apprehensive as to whether it would work or not. I had no problems although it seemed a little slow to scan on and off. There were probably only 8 or 9 people on the bus including the Indian guys and myself. One of the passengers was clearly going to the airport sitting with a large suitcase in the low floor part of the bus.

On the bus.

From there the trip was rather quick. What slowed us down though was a shortish but time consuming detour taken to serve the Broadmeadows shopping centre. The bus also stopped at the Broadmeadows station. I would rather the bus just stop at the station. From there we headed towards Gladstone Park, where in Mickleham Road we stopped to change over drivers. The new driver also brought his wife along for the ride.

Having just gone through the shopping centre we are
waiting to turn into Broadmeadows station.

By this stage there were fewer people on board, perhaps four or five including myself, the suitcase guy, one or two airport workers, and the drivers wife.

From here the bus turned on to the Tullamarine Freeway and sped towards the airport. We took the first exit which takes traffic to the taxi holding area and freight handling areas of the airport. I use this exit myself when going to watch aircraft from operations road on the western side of the airport as you avoid most of the terminal traffic. The bus went past the long term car park and then proceeded into the freight handling areas of the airport. As we got close to the Tiger Airways Terminal, T4, things literally took an unexpected turn when we did a u-turn and stopped next to a grassy nature strip far from even T4. The guy with the suitcase didn't even realise this was the end of the line, in fact I wasn't even sure if it was, but I got off anyway and headed up the road towards the Tiger water tower.

The stop had no signage that I could see, and certainly no timetable information or realtime info display. In fact if it wasn't for the pair of silver and orange buses, you wouldn't know it was the stop for the major regular public transport access to the airport. I am fairly certain that the buses existence is not even acknowledged at the main terminals. So if you didn't know about it before hand, you wouldn't use it. The whole situation is very poor.

Somewhere in the distance you can see two Smart buses waiting.
Not very inviting...

As I couldn't see where the path ended up on the side of the road the buses stop on I decided to cross the road early before reaching T4. I walked along the freight terminals and after a few minutes I came to T4. This proved to be the right thing to do as there is no pedestrian crossing closer to T4.

T4 itself seemed to be overflowing with many people sitting outside at the outdoor cafe on the concrete in the blazing hot sun (it was new years eve, which as I recall was a quite a hot day in the mid 30's). As per the Airways TV show, there was a Federal Police car parked out the front, with the officers no doubt settling some dispute between passengers and staff.

Beware the Tiger that bites you back...

I decided to take a look in the main terminal before heading back, so continued on the path to T3. I actually went upstairs and through security to the gates. I finally got through the security checkpoint after being held up by the unprepared traveller in front of me dealing with the metal detector.

I just headed straight to the end of the pier to the seats that face the runway and watched all the comings and goings for about twenty minutes. As time was getting on so I began the walk back to the bus stop. Before leaving the terminal I bought a paper (it was a Thursday therefore I needed a Green Guide!) and a drink. I just made it to the stop in time for the next bus and about half an hour later I was back at my car at Coolaroo station.

Overall the journey itself was fine. Bus frequency is pretty good by Melbourne standards and seems a reasonably reliable service. The whole thing is undone by the terminus at the airport. Is in a remote location (as in a good 10 minute walk from the Qantas terminal, as far or further than the nearest bus stop for the long term car park shuttle bus) with no facilities other than the single seat at the stop and little or no signage or other information that I could see.

The disgrace is that the service is not at all acknowledged by the airport directional signage for ground transport options for arriving passengers. The service does get a mention on the airport's website, hoswever it is near the bottom of a long list of airport shuttle style buse. Presumably the reason the route is not acknowledged or provided with a decent or convenient terminus is that the route does not pay an access fee or provide any revenue to the airport operators (and is probably forced on the airport by the Department of Transport)

The location and amenities of the stop has been touched on in articles in the papers over the last few days about ACCC investigations into airport parking. I am hopeful, but doubtful that there is enough in this to get the stop moved to a more convenient location. (I've been writing this review for a while now, since before the articles)

Gratuitous plane pics...

Virgin Blue Boeing 737-700.
Not going anywhere soon...

A 737-800 pulling into the gate.

Stops right on the mark.

Ready to unload...

Parking

Now that I drive to work, things such as parking interest me. My workplace is in a major suburban centre that has all kinds of businesses and is a transport hub for commuters to and from other places. Most Office buildings, like the one I work in, have on site parking. Some have enough parking for all employees, some don't. Lets just say that I don't think mine does, because my company charges about $100 a month for the privilege, deducted from salary. Being a contractor I don't think I'm even eligible. A friend of mine who works for a different company up the road a bit gets free parking.

Now this forces most people to seek parking elsewhere. The council in their wisdom has created a buffer around the area ranging from maybe 500 metres to nearly 1 kilometre in some cases that is either metered, time limited or both. The time limit ranges from an hour in our street, which is also ticketed, to two hours in outlying residential streets. Often it is unlimited parking on one side of the street and 2 hour on the other. No matter which way you look at it the council rakes in the revenue.

This forces people like me to park in residential streets far away. I've walked upto 2 km in each direction between my car and work in the past. I don't mind the walk so much as for me it is pretty good exercise. I've become lazy lately and will drive past work in order to park nearer. I used to park in a spot that was on the way to work and walk the rest of the way, sometimes 2 km as mentioned.

Another effect is that the lack of parking also creates situations where people will squeeze cars into the tightest spots as shown in the above image, and I've seen this same car squeeze into this space on more than one occasion.

Keeping my adventures to myself

I'm good at keeping things to myself. This is probably not a surprise to people who read this blog, but I do keep stuff from you. Stuff I should probably blog about. Let me tell you a bit about my adventures that haven't made it to the blog yet.

In the last year I have been to every state in Australia (not counting the territories, ACT or NT).

I have been to Perth twice in the last year, once for the footy trip last September, and once on Easter Saturday this year. Yes for the day. The latter I will blog about shortly.

I have been to Sydney twice in the last 2 months. The first time in May I bored you all with a blow by blow description of the trip. The second time was a weekend trip last month, that was kind of last minute. I may as well blog a bit about that too when I get the chance.

Actually I have been to the ACT. I flew to Sydney the second time via Canberra. Stayed in the airport for an hour, but I did see the flagpole on top of parliament house while we were taxiing from the runway. That leaves only the Northern territory and a few outlying islands to go...

In August last year I took advantage of very cheap airfares and flew to Launceston for the day. Very cold day it was, but was a fun random thing to do.

I now have a reputation at work for flying to random places whenever it takes my fancy. This is far from the truth.

My final confession is that latter in the year I will be going overseas. My first overseas trip since I was 13. More on that later...

St Kilda and City

Still back two weeks ago. After the market I got a tram to St Kilda. There I decided to go for a walk on the St Kilda Pier.

Going forward

...Looking back

On the breakwall

I read somewhere that the breakwall was built to create a harbour for the sailing events at the 1956 Olympics.

The end the breakwall is home to some criters, the Little Penguin
and the Native Water Rat.

While I was looking at the sign above I overheard the following


"how cute"

"oh yuk, it's a rat, oooo!"


You just can't please some people. As far as rats go it is pretty cute.

Looking towards the city skyline

going down wind...

I sat on a rock for a few minutes waiting for the yacht to get closer so I could take the photo. After it passed I headed back towards the shore.

Say aloha to Captain Cook.

I don't know why, but this statue seems somehow out of place here.

I then walked along the Esplanade to the Palais and Luna Park.

The old Palais looks really run down.

And again somehow out of place here.

The show that was on this day was a live version of the childrens TV show Yo Gabba Gabba. I have no Idea who they are or what they do, but it seemed pretty popular with the kids.

Then I saw this restored fire truck, which a maxi taxi kindly decided to park in front of just as I was about to take a photo...

Never mind double parking illegally blocking entry to the street,
or the space a few metres down the road where you could safely unload,
or the person standing in the middle of a traffic island with a camera clearly trying to
take a photo of something...

After a few minutes he settled his fare and finally drove off after asking me if I needed a taxi. I was after all standing on a traffic island to take this photo.

click

Around the back where all the hoses and attachments go.

I guess you could call this the money shot if there

were such a thing as fire engine porn.

AFter getting sick of St Kilda I travelled back to the city on a tram via St Kilda road. I don't know why but I am always surprised that this route usually does not take any longer than the light rail to get to the city. I got off the tram at Lonsdale Street and slowly made my way down to Southbank where I was due to meet my mother.

Southbank Footbridge

Am I the only preson who does not like the design of this footbridge? Not in looks, but in the way it handles pedestrian traffic. There is no clear path across, you spend the whole time trying not to walk into the handrails and dodging people coming the other who are also trying not to walk into the hand rails. All because of the way the bridge zig zags. Not to mention that there are always tourists taking photos, not that that is a bad thing, but because of the design of the bridge they get in the way. My other gripe is the narrow subway under Flinders Street Station that the bridge feeds into, it is all rather uncomfortable. And the often terrible buskers impede the flow of traffic.

Eureka! Tower

Looking back towards Flinders Street Station

After theis I met my mother who had been to the opera and we ate dinner in the Foodcourt at Southbank before catching the train home.

That was my day on the 30th of May 2009

Dim and Sim

Two weeks ago I went to the South Melbourne Market and...

Oh boy can't wait.

Pour in some Soy and chilli sauce...

...Then shake the bag to get maximum
coverage

mmmm yum

...num num num...

Go Away Pigeons! Not for you!

Shake the bag again to get more coverage.

All gone!

Then I went around the corner to the jam doughnut caravan...

Eurovison 2009

Yes it is Eurovison time again. The final is taking place on the 16th of May in Moscow as Russia won last year. The semi finals are on SBS on Friday the 15th and Saturday 16th, and the final will be broadcast on Sunday the 19th. I don't think I have ever really watched the whole thing, only flicked it on and off during the ads of another show. I probably won't watch the whole thing this year either. Better get to the reason for this post though.

Last night I was watching a video on YouTube (if you are really interested it was a video demonstrating games on the new mac mini part 3 of 3, also parts 1 and 2) that had a really catchy song over the credits. After googling the lyrics I found out that it is actually Germany's entry into this years Eurovision song contest. The song is Miss Kiss Kiss Bang by Alex swings Oscar sings. Alex is a German DJ and was a member of the 90's techno group U96, while Oscar is a "mexican broadway musical theatre performer" (quote from wikipedia entry) who lives in Munich. The song itself is like a cross between something out of the blues brothers and a Latino pop star (ie ricky martin/enrique iglasias etc). the song is mega catchy as a Eurovision song should be, usually they are bloody awful. Not that I've heard any of the other entries, but usually they are pretty awful.

In the video Oscar is the singer, while Alex is the guy in the sunglasses or behind the piano. I can't get it out of my head now and so I hope to pass it on to others.

Quaking

Well, earth tremor really. I actually felt this one, the last one I didn't even notice. I was sitting at my desk when I started bouncing up and down. This went on for a few seconds before it subsided. My immediate thought was that it was the train that happened to be going past at the time (trains pass my workplace just above window level of the floor we are on), but it was more than the normal train rattle that I sometimes notice. When I looked up everyone else was looking up too. Everyone was pretty sure it was an earthquake. It was pretty cool though.

Latter when I managed to get through to the Geoscience Australia website, I took the screen grab at the top of this post. It seems it was centred on a similar location and was the same magnitude, 4.6, as the last tremor 2 weeks ago. Is a gaping hole about to open up? Are we about to have "the big one"?

Not lost and other situations.

Well I made it home the same day as my last post. I was surprised at the relative comfort of the Jetstar flight. At around 2 hours I had no discomfort, apart from the battle for the arm rest with the person next to me. They were sitting in my window seat when I boarded and I made them move, so I guess they were getting me back. No safety issues either. I Wouldn't hesitate to fly with Jetstar again in the future.

On Friday night Mum's TV blew up. Not really, but it stopped working and started making funny noises. Saturday was spent searching electrical shops for a good deal. Prices have gone up since before Christmas that's for sure. Stores kept trying to sell us a Samsung, ended up picking a Panasonic, that seemed like a good deal at Dick Smith. We went back on Sunday morning and walked out with a Sony Bravia for the same price (missed the really cheap Sony Bravia 37" run out model at K Mart by a few days. It's a 32" model and utterly briliant. Just fits the existing TV stand perfectly. Makes my 26" widescreen CRT look really bad.

At work we are getting new computers, the whole company is getting laptops for some reason. I will never take my work computer home so I can't see the point, but I guess it's all about consistency. At the same time the company is taking the leap to Vista, but not my department because much of the software we use is incompatible. So we are sticking with XP. I was going to get mine today, but the IT department loaded Vista by mistake. For some reason there is also a bug with the XP installation that they are going to try and iron out on my machine. I Should have it on my desk by Friday.

New Order visit Bizarro Land

About the last place you'd expect this band to perform is on a beach (I mean look how pale Gillian the keyboardist is, she's white as a sheet), let alone with The Hoff walking around in the background...

Is GPS a lost Cause?

Full article here. It is the first couple of lines that interest me though...

Drivers have been warned not to rely solely on GPS navigation units to find their way around after two Norwegians following their GPS's instructions were shot at by suspected drug traffickers in a Rio de Janeiro slum.

It is believed the drivers had set out to find a bottle shop in downtown Oslo.

So they set out in Oslo to find a bottle shop and their GPS led them to a Rio de Janeiro slum? That is one long drive, no doubt they passed numerous bottle shops on the way. I'd be taking that GPS unit back to the store for a refund.

A practical use for LEGO

LEGO Mindstorms that is.

Flushing the toilet...




Less practical, but really cool is using an iPhone and web app to control a LEGO robot.

Update Update

I promise I will start working on the promised Adelaide rail/transport post, but for now a short update.

Last night I went to a friends birthday in St Kilda, at a pizza restaurant bar type place situated in the old St Kilda station. The food was good and cheap ($5 pizzas), alcohol was okayish pricewise, the doof doof music was terrible. At a table near us were seated the winner of the moddeling show hosted by Jenifer Hawkins on channel 7 and all his friends. Boorish " metro" types in fluro T shirts and wierd haircuts. That guy is probably set for life though, can have any man/woman he chooses, and will rake in millions. Good luck to him.

The view out my front door

Right now it is raining in Melbourne, although most people probably noticed that. There is also the occasional hail shower. At one stage the hail was so thick on the ground it looked a bit like snow. I haven't seen hail like this for years. It's not in much of a hurry to melt away either, and is still sitting on the ground nearly an hour since the first shower (although as I said it has been topped up occasionally).

Looking up the street

Our rain gauge was emptied this morning just after it started to rain, and was reading about 15 mm after the first hail shower. Not sure how accurate it is or how much the hail floating in the top affects it, but I suspect it is actually a bit less than the reading. The near by Viewbank weather station does not seem to agree either.

Hail floating in the rain gauge

Stripteach?

Yes you heard me. News today of a teacher in Hungary stripping in front of students and being caught on camera doing it. This is just creepy. I could not think of one teacher from my school that I would have liked to see strip like this, except perhaps the hot young student teacher doing work placement. At the very least this sort of thing should be after hours, extra curricular.

Also notice list of suggested viewing provided by YouTube after the clip finishes, interesting...

Direct link to video

Hello Blog

Hello Blog.

I know I've been neglecting you lately so I'm just leaving a note to say I haven't forgotten you and will make some real posts soon. My adventures have been a bit thin on the ground lately. Actually I should post on what I did on the weekend for a start...

Ben

Jury Duty

Last month I had to attend jury duty. The thing with jury duty is that you sit around in a lounge area with over 100 other potential jurors in the rather nice county court until they draw a jury pool for a trial. It's quite boring, but stressful not having any idea what is happening. On the first draw of 30 people they got to 27 before drawing my name at 28. As luck would have it (or not) I went all the way and got to sit on a trial jury. In hindsight that was lucky, because the trial I was assigned to was rather short. The others starting that day going for longer, one much longer.

The formalities and processes of the court are fascinating. Not at all like Boston Legal (or anyother american TV show) though, which is a good thing. In fact the first thing they tell you is to forget everything you've seen on TV. The one thing about the court that stood out for me was that the way the judge and barristers spoke was extremely formal and precise. There no mistaking the meaning of what they were saying.

The jury is looked after by a person known as the judge's tipstaff, or "tippy". They are not allowed to know anything of the deliberations, but look after the practicalities. While court is in session out tippy was seen to be doing crossword and sudoku puzzles, as well as looking after the items of evidence when necessary.

Due to confidentiality I can't reveal anything about the case. In fact I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say, so it's best not to say anything.

At the end of it you get a cheque for your service ($36 a day up to 5 days, with a higher rate after 5 days) and an exemption from jury service for 3 years. That payment is not as bad as it seems as your employer is required to make up the difference between the jury payment and what you could reasonably expect to be paid for the days work you miss.

As I said it was and interesting few days.

Away

Hi,

I've been away from my blog a bit lately. Don't know why, I just have. Well I did just return from a weekend trip to Perth yesterday which was cool. There's a fresh post in the oven about that. I just need to sift and stir the photos into the mix. Number one highlight was eating at Sizzler, oh and visiting a place called Little Creatures in Fremantle.

Still being on Perth time I slept right through my alarm this morning and didn't wake until nearly 10am. I didn't go to work today, and I don't care. The joys of being a contractor. I think I'll start looking for a new job soon anyway.

So today I spent the day playing around in iTunes and printing Super Mario stickers. Tonight I've drinking Strongbow Cider while I've been ripping the last of my CD's into iTunes, a bit of a flashback, being the 1998 and 1999 Tripple J Hottest 100 compilations. The current song I'm listening to is Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys. Here is the video:

Redundancy: Better Homes and Gardens, and Fairfax

If you don't know, Better Homes and Gardens is a lifestyle show featuring a number of "experts" on various home and garden matters. So you have cooks, crafty people, home handymen, gardeners, vets and the host, former swimmer, Joanna Griggs. On the surface it would appear that Joanna Griggs area of expertise is TV presentation, which she does an OK job at, even if she is a bit grating at times. In reality she is utterly superfluous to the function of the show. They justify her role by giving her one or two small crafty projects to show the viewers, but you can tell that it's not really her thing. The truth is that she could easily be replaced by the home and garden experts taking turns to introduce each others segments.

Then there is today's announcement that Fairfax is letting go of 500 employees to save costs. My immediate response was to ask just what exactly is it that all these people are doing that they can actually afford to get rid of them. 500 is a lot of people doing not much at all.

Noisy Neighbours

Living near an active military establishment has it's advantages and disadvantages. I am talking about the Simpson Barracks in Macleod/Watsonia which is less then a kilometre across a small valley from my house (If I look out my window I can see it now).

Probably one of the biggest advantages is the large area of bushland that has remained relatively intact. My primary school had a tree planting deal with the army nursery (yes the army grows plants too). The Army took us in the back of some trucks (like in the movies) a couple of times to plant seedling and the like. The Army also let our school grow seedlings in the nursery for planting in the school grounds. That was great fun, but these days I don't think you could get away with it.

The biggest disadvantage is the noise. You get used to the short and frequent bursts of gun fire when they occasionally have target practice. Right now they are firing something rather large, like a mortar or a canon. I'm expecting something through the window at any moment!

The Australian Army school of signals is based there, so I wouldn't imagine much shooting is on the agenda, just enough to be competent with a weapon if it comes to that sort of thing.

I seem to recall there is a shooting range that is shared between the Army and a gun club, perhaps an army gun club.

Most frequently though we hear the sound of music. Being home to the defence School of Music you tend to get lot of that. Concert bands, marching bands, buglers, bagpipes, drums you name it. Throughout the year they put on a number of free concerts. The twilight ones almost always end with fireworks in time to the 1812 overture.

Probably the most intense noise ever was the almost constant throb, drone and scream of Black Hawk and Huey helicopters (it depended how far away they were flying) during some sort of training exercise about 10 years ago. It was pretty exciting at first, but it went on for about a week. The Black Hawks came back during the commonwealth games in 2006, I think they were based at Essendon Airport instead of the barracks.

I should mention that the biggest disadvantage was that this was one of Australia/USA main communications bases for listening in on the Russians, so vaporisation in the face of all out nuclear war was a given, the graffiti near Camberwell Station left over from the 70's says so. Actually my mum used to tell me that too when I was little. A really comforting thing to tell your children... Thankfully they moved that capability to a better location in northern Western Australia somewhere.

Overall it is pretty peaceful, with short periods of extreme noise. There are no complaints here.

Sandblasted

I couldn't decide which one to include so I included both. I like the comment in the second.

One of my aims in life is to visit this beach and get sandblasted, too bad if the landing is a bit short.

This is of course the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. The airport is Princess Juliana International Airport. An interesting fact about St Martin is that the island is split in two. One side belongs to the French, they call it Saint-Martin. The other side belongs to the Netherlands, the side that has the airport, where it is called Sint Maarten. The Netherlands side is part of the Netherlands Antilles, while the French side makes up the larger part of the Collectivity of Saint Martin, which succeeded from the French Department of Guadeloupe in 2003.

If that's not interesting enough, the island has it's own bi-lingual anthem, O Sweet Saint Martin's Land, that is sung in both French and Dutch.

I don't think there is any chance that Airbus A380 aircraft will serve the island. As it is they runway is barely long enough for 747s and all aircraft need to perform a u turn at the end of the runway as there isn't enough room for a taxi way.

Edit: This video proves it is more exciting from the beach, plus shows the U Turn at the end of the runway.

The Melbourne Shuffle

You Tube is full of videos showing people doing the the Melbourne Shuffle, this one shows you how to do it. I'm really uncoordinated, so I don't think I'd better try it.