Eagle Eye

I was walking past Sanity today and happened to see this DVD out the front as one of the new releases. This means it must have been out at the cinema 3 to 6 months ago. I didn't go and see it, but I know I've seen the movie, I'm sure I've seen it. it wasn't on a plane or in a hotel either I can't explain it...


No I just remembered, it was amongst those DVDs of questionable source that I borrowed off someone a few months ago.

From memory it was an OK film, typical Hollywood DVD fodder. OK for boring nights at home with nothing else to do. A good (ie stereotypical) techno-thriller with lots of explosions and stuff.

Hot

Outside where I am sitting at the moment it is a pleasant 30 degrees, inside the house it is in the mid 30s after being shut up all day. Everything is open to try and get it down a bit, but it's still hot. There was a nice pleasant breeze before but that seems to have died down.

Earlier this evening I was at Westfield Doncaster, where I noticed a large number of people carting around fans, portable air conditioners and evaporative coolers.

I am not looking forward to another 43 degree day tomorrow.

Building Bridges Completed

I took this video on the way to work this morning. The train I was on was a bit of a groaner, a good sound effect for the video. With the realignment, all the existing single track between Westgarth and the bridge was replaced. The train I am travelling on is on the new track and bridge. Very smooth, I must say.

The fact that on both of my trips through this section today we crossed another train going in the opposite direction tells me that the nay sayers are wrong. What were/are the nay sayers saying? That this would move the problem to Clifton Hill. However, being a flat junction there will always be delays at Clifton Hill, it's a fact of life, but I think it will be better than before. No more sitting at Westgarth for 5 minutes in the morning, and Epping trains will hopefully flow more freely as a result. We shall see how it goes over the next few weeks as normal loads resume.

Building Bridges Pt 2

Back in December I made a post about the Clifton Hill rail project and the progress to that date. Since then it has come along in leaps and bounds, and in fact if I didn't know better I would say that after this weekend it will be open to trains.

Throughout December finishing touches were made on the bridge, while so far in January all the new track, electrical overhead and signals have been put in place. Two weekends ago a new set of points was installed at Clifton Hill, which allow city bound trains from Westgarth to enter the platform from the new section of track. This weekend it appears that all is left to do is to re-align and connect everything up at the Westgarth end. As a regular traveller on this line I am very impressed with the lack of disruption to regular train services, the only bustitutions occuring over a few late nights and weekends.

As an interested observer of the development of public transport I am amazed at the apparent planning that went into this operation. My opinion is that big projects in this country are always half baked and never realise their full potential. This and the previous Middleboroough Road grade separation of 2007 have somewhat changed this, and give me hope that future improvements to the Victorian rail network (often much needed after years of no funding and little care or maintenance) will be done as professionally. I only hope that our transport planning beaurocrats are able to get more funding to remove the stupid bottlenecks like Clifton Hill as well as implimenting sensible extensions (ie not so much the Eddington tunnels or Tarneit lines).

One thing I will say is that the governments targets for completion (ie the end of 2009 as stated on signs and projects website) are complete rubbish. I beleive they artificially extend the time required so they can make make it look like the project is completed early, when in fact it is on time or only a little early. Judging by the pace of work on this job there was never any question that it would open within the first half of 2009. Then there is the fact that the figure includes landscaping of the public parks and crown land which have been occupied during the construction, which will probably go on for a few months after trains are running.

The River

Just a few photos I took on new years eve before the fireworks.

Setting Up the fireworks.

Tranquil River (the calm before the storm)

The Silo

Party boats (the storm)

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...

Happy New Year

Well 2008 was a bit of a nothing year. It was for me anyway, not sure about anybody else. Hopefully 2009 works out a bit better.

I saw in the new year from the comfort of a lounge room in suburbia (I think that's a song lyric), as I just didn't feel up to the big new years thing. In fact I think I've said this before, I sort of hate new years eve.

However earlier in the night I watched the fireworks from the banks of the river. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to watch from Morrel Bridge near the botanic gardens. Bad idea, it seems we overestimated the height of the fireworks. Others around me obviously thought the same. So down the river we went.

Happy New Year

Losing a Friend

One night in 1989 we were eating dinner when there was a knock at the door. There mum who first answered it found the girls from a few houses up with a box of their grandma's cat's kittens. They thrust a kitten into my mum's arms and said "you'll take one won't you Mrs Smith?". Everyone around the dinner table agreed that this would be a good idea, and so Tabby came into our lives. For a number of years it was possible to see a family resemblance in a number of the neighbourhood cats, as their owners had also received that knock at the door. A feisty cat, all claws and teeth at that young age (Some of her siblings were even more fowl tempered), she soon showed her sweet nature with her favourites (me included), and in later years she would actively seek out a comfortable lap to sit on.

Tabby's name derives from Tabitha, itself a play on the word tabby. (With all that long white fur we always thought there was some Persian in her blood somewhere) At the time we got her we also had a Budgie called Sam, and so we unintentionally carried on the Bewitched theme for pet names.

This morning Tabby passed away aged a little over 19 years old, a fair age for a cat. Over the past few days she became weak and went off her food. Last night it became apparent that she probably would not last the night. We made up a comfy bed near her food bowls and said goodnight. This morning we found her lying peacefully in one of her favourite sleeping spots on the carpet in the dining room.

R.I.P Tabby

A recent photo of Tabby, November 2008.

Clocking Off

It was a real pain and yet so easy to get to work today. I didn't have to worry about buying/validating tickets, and there was hardly anyone around. Thanks for the free ride Mrs Kosky that was a nice present. I felt like I was going to work on a Saturday, as the street where my workplace is was unusually quiet. The only crowds I noticed were at the fish shop, where everyone seemed to be buying prawns.

I only ended up doing about an hour and halfs worth of work, but we were told to charge a full day in our timesheets anyway, no complaints there. At 11:30 we had an informal lunch with chicken and salads, unfortunately it ran out all too quickly and many people who turned up late missed out altogether. Someone came to the rescue and ordered Pizzas.

I spent about half an hour playing a game on the computer after lunch. I was playing Portal: the flash version which is quite a good version of the full PC version of Portal. Eventually I decided enough was enough and I left work for the last time this year, but still filled in a days worth of time in my time sheet. (naughty? No we were instructed to do so. Who am I to argue?)

On the way home I finished off my Christmas shopping at Westfield Doncaster, and found it strangely relaxed. No one was really in a hurry or in much of a frenzy, it was good to see. While there I bought my last present, for my mum. I aslo bought myself a small present. Need for Speed Undercover for the Wii. I also bought 2 six packs of imitation Corona from Safeway, and four limes. The limes were unusually cheap, the ticketed price was 99 cents each, but they turned out at 50 cents each. Looking at my docket, I think the fruit shop I went to must give out random discounts. I was lucky.

From there I got the bus home and have just finished wrapping all the presents for tommorow. I think I will now go and play with the present from myself, before wrapping it up and giving it to myself again tommorow.

Festivus Drinks

I am actually amazed /ashamed I can remember so much. I only nearly vommited once....

Friday night was Christmas drinks with some of the people from work. Only six of us made it, well not everyone was invited, it's a bit of an exclusive club actually. One went early leaving 5 of us. We started upstairs at the Corner in Richmond. That was an interesting place, and for a while I thought I had violated the dress code for not wearing my cowboy hat, fairy wings or checked shirt (in any combination). There must be a tear in the fabric of space and time at this place, because pretty soon there was a line for the men's toilets, but there was none for the women's, it was really strange.

Hopping in a taxi in Swan Street we made our way to the Imperial in Spring Street, me and my mates traditional pre/post footy pub. More general drinking antics occurred. There we found people parading around a cardboard cut out of their company's CEO, I got to shake his hand. The only bad thing to happen was someone knocked a beer over onto the chips, so there were soggy beer flavoured.

At some point we left and headed down Bourke towards that fake brittish pub on the corner of Exhibition. It was full and they wouldn't let us in, or somethign like that. So instead we went to the Portland Hotel in Russel Street. It was here that I revealed to my colleagues just how bad I am at pool, even sober I'm no good, but this was just embarrassing.

On the way home I stopped off for some much needed late night nourishment at Hungry Jacks and still managed to make it to Flinders Street in time for the train, which was waiting patiently for me. I found a nice quiet seat on my own and proceded to listen my iPod. Then out of nowhere a large group of very happy, yet very drunk people descended on my oasis. AF ew of them were very rowdy, singing "Let's dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats (the rest looked rather under the weather). It was at this stage that one of the girls commented to me "you can write about this in your blog". Unless she reads my blog and recognised me from my photo on my blog, she doesn't know how correct she was. After they all got off at Westgarth, it went quiet again.

So there you go you go girl on the train, you got a mention on my blog.

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.

Green for the company

The company I work for has recently gone "green", they created a series of "webinars" for staff on climate change and various other environmental issues. A further part of this drive has been to change all the screen savers on company computers to be a blank screen, and to encourage people to turn screens and computers off overnight. I admit that I used to leave my computer on overnight and just turn the screen off, at weekends I used to turn it off. Now it gets turned off every night. I think most people do turn their machines off every night, except if they need to run a process overnight, which in my area does happen quite frequently.

Soon all PCs are to be replaced with laptops, or so I gather from the questionnaire that was circulated recently. Sure they are more energy efficient, but I actually chose a desktop. The current desktops we have seem to struggle (well mine does) and I doubt a laptop will be much better. I suspect I will get one anyway due to the companies one size fits all IT policy. Either way it doesn't bother me.

The thing is, I see so many things wrong in my workplace in terms of energy wastage (and wastage in general) it's not funny. The building I work in heats up too much, in both Winter and Summer. There is something seriously wrong with the air conditioning and no matter how many times they fix it, it never gets any better. Being a modern (probably mid-late 1990s) glass and concrete building I suspect it is not properly insulated or ventilated either. On our floor we have large floor to ceiling windows facing north and west, which are definitely tinted, but I'm not sure if they are double glazed. Either way, it gets really hot and bright in the warmer part of the year. The only covering are some flimsy Venetian blinds to that have very poor insulating properties. What would make the biggest difference in my opinion is better insulating blinds and the ability to open windows for some natural ventilation.

As for water wastage, we have toilet cisterns that continually run even though a plumber has been in to change the washers and things. Some kind person printed out some signs telling us how to flush them so they don't run. Of course these instructions don't work, and I usually end up fiddling around until it stops. Most people just walk out without checking. On one occasion I resorted to turning off in one of the cubicles. Soon enough our sign writter had put a sign up saying there was no water and that a plumber was on the way. I think I went too far, but surely the tap is the first thing you would check if there is no water?

Really the whole building needs better maintenance, and even renovation as it is quite poorly designed.

Building Bridges

Click to make bigger

Last Saturday I went and had a look at the new rail bridge that is being built over the Merri Creek between Westgarth and Clifton Hill. In the photo above you can see the extent of the new bridge so far. They had just installed the second girder the day before, and at time of writting it is expected the third girder should have been put into place. Behind you can see the brick piers of the existing bridge.

The aim of the project is to duplicate the rail line between Clifton Hill and Westgarth, which means building a new single track bridge next to the existing one. Progress is going well so far, so much so that Government is claiming that it will open 1 year early (I read a quote of Kosky saying this the other day but can''t find an article or press release at the minute). The cynic in me says that they (the government) add generous padding to projects like this on purpose just so they can make such claims to look good. But yes, after nothing happening for the first 8 months of the year work is now speeding along fine.

This machine was running up and down the track
with the old bits of rail and putting them in a neat pile.

On Saturday the Epping and Hurstbridge lines were shut down to allow some track work to take place at Clifton Hill and Westgarth. At the Westgarth end they installed a new set of points, while at Clifton Hill they removed the centre track, which ran between the 2 platforms, as it was not used very often. Also they appeared to connect the overhead to the new stanchions, which have been getting installed lately.

New points being installed at the end of the new bridge at Westgarth.

Bits and pieces at Westgarth.

During the shutdown they also took the opportunity to install some news sleepers on the curve leading from Dennis station to Westgarth station.

Workers installing new sleepers.

Dumping the old sleepers into a truck.

While this was happening buses were replacing trains on the Epping line between Epping and Victoria Park, and between Heidelberg and Victoria park on the Hurstbridge line. From my experience the train-bus and bus-train transfers were quite smooth, there was an over abundance of staff at loading points and they even created a temporary bus station at Victoria Park. For the Heidelberg run there was the option of an all stations or an express bus. It is amazing that they can plan for special occasions like this so well, and yet day to day operations are ordinary at best.

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.

New modus opperandi: City Loop

As most people will be aware by now 2 or 3 weeks ago changes were made to the way the Epping/Hurstbridge and Werribee lines use the city loop. In peak times the Werribee line has been removed completely running direct to and from Flinders Street via Spencer Street. At non peak times and on weekends and public holidays it operates as normal.

The Epping and Hurstbridge lines have been altered to run in a clockwise direction during the week, direct to Flinders Street before going around the full loop, and anti clockwise around the loop direct to Parliament on weekends.

I for one am in favour as it makes my life for about half the week much easier. I no longer have to travel to Parliament, change to a Northern loop train to get to Flinders Street and then get my Belgrave/Lilydale train from there. The alternative was to travel the whole way around the loop which could take nearly 20 minutes if you got halted a few times on the viaduct between Southern Cross and Flinders Street. Often changing at Parliament was the difference between catching a train and not...

Now I go direct, sure there is sometimes a bit of a crawl between Jolimont and Flinders Street, but that is to be expected when there are only 2 platforms that my train can use, plus conflicting moves with trains on the Burnley Group going the other way. Actually that last part is probably the most contentious issue, as both the Burnley Group and Clifton Hill groups now vie for one piece of track from opposite directions if platform 14 at Flinders Street is occupied. That part really sucks. In general my connections are much smoother than they used to be.

I don't really like the arrangement on weekends though, as I used to like getting off at Flinders Street on a Saturday morning and walking up through the city to where ever I needed to go. I guess I will learn to live with it. From my understanding it is run this way to keep the outbound track from Flinders Street to Jolimont in working order and to keep train drivers knowledge of this track up to date. On the first weekend of this operation I recall the confused expressions of other people on the train as it went into the city loop.

It all seems to have bedded down rather well now, although I understand the Werribee line pax are still having issues with transfers to loop trains at North Melbourne and Southern Cross.

Voting Over

So I voted earlier this morning. All but two of the candidates were at the polling booth. I voted using my own preferences. I have to say that I think that there are definitely "stooge" candidates in my ward (no names sorry). I have a feeling that life for the Banyule council will go on largely unchanged. Of course the biggest disappointment is that there was no sausage sizzle.

Council Elections

Like Daniel, I live in one of the few councils (Banyule) that still insists on attendance voting, and again like Daniel I like the whole ritual of voting (I swear I thought of this before I read Daniels post). I like running the gauntlet of the how to vote cards, collecting one from each offering. Then playing the waiting game in line before, having a go at electoral role lotto. Once in the booth I study the how to vote cards to see where allegiances lie, then I generally vote by the order of my own preference. After the voting papers are numbered and checked I slam dunk them into the appropriate boxes and dump the how to vote cards in the bin (I hope they recycle!). I then stride victorously into the cold hard light of day to enjoy the spoils of voting. A sausage in bread, democracy done. It's all part of the ritual.

As for the candidates in my ward. There are 8 candidates in total for Bakewell. Of those 8, only 3 have bothered to send out election material.

Peter Mckenna (Liberal)

The sitting councilor for Bakewell, as such his views are well known. He is pro development but with appropriate checks and ballances. As such he is for the Greensborough town centre project. Generally he seems pretty even handed and not a bad representative to have.


Michael Paul (Labor)

The next most high profile candidate, his views are also well known. He contended the last election and frequently sends out flyers or writes to the local paper complaining about something that the council is doing. He lists one of his aims as completing a local bicycle/walking path, which I would probably use. Again he is for "sensible" development, but seems somewhat against the Greensborough Project*. (specifically the premature closure of the old Greensborough pool)


Leonard Saw (Ind)

I think he has contended most recent elections at all levels of government as an indepenent. The causes he is passionate about are mainly issues affecting veterans and pensioners, which are very relevant to the area, as there are many ex-servicemen/women who live in the area, but as such he never attracts the mainstream vote.

The remaining candidates are unknowns apart from a small blurb in last weeks Leader. Party affiliations include one Green and one Labor.

I know who I am voting for, but I'm not saying here.

* The Greensborough Project which was given the final go ahead not so long ago is a total redevelopment of much of the land in the Greensborough Business District. It involves mostly council owned land, such as the Swimming Pool, car parks and council buildings, and will recreate the public space in Greensborogh, including a town square, new aquatic sports centre, government services offices, plus retail, commecial office space, new cinemas, as well as multi story car parking. Sadly public transport seems to have been forgotten, Greensborough is crying out for a decent bus/rail interchange, because as it is the buses are spread out across 3 termini, only one of which is near the station.

Album Art

Last week I bought the double compilation of Paul Kelly's Greatest Hits Songs From the South Volumes 1 and 2. Tonight I ripped it to mp3 in iTunes. Finding album art for volume 1 eleven or so years after it was released is no problem but Volume 2 released a few weeks ago is nowhere to be found, not even after searching on the net. iTunes initially had trouble importing the track listing, but persistence in hitting the "Get CD track names" button won out. The Album art is a big problem as I like to "see" what I'm listening to and I'm a big fan of album art. As a last resort I think that I will have to scan the front of the booklet (the CDs come in cardboard folder rather than a regular crystal CD case which is nice).

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

Adelaide - Day 3

(backdated to the day)

Mercure Grosvenor
North Terrace, Adelaide

I rose not so early, after a very good sleep, showered, dressed and headed to a different nearby cafe to yesterday for some breakfast. Having finished my Ham and Cheese Croissant and juice, and found out what horse I had in the work cup sweep (#2 Master Orielly, I'm still not sure where it came) I headed off for the Adelaide Central Market. Walking with the hordes of office workers I followed my nose through a number of back streets and alley ways following before emerging opposite the market.

The Adelaide central market is not so much like the Queen Victoria market, but more like the suburban markets such as Preston market. All the usual stalls, butchers, fruit, deli, bakers etc plus clothing and souveneer stalls. While walking around I also stumbled into Adelaide's China town which is a lane way next to the market.

Check out time was 11AM so it was time to head back to the hotel pack up my things and check out. As my flight wasn't until later in the day I left my bag in the hotels storage room.

Adelaide Station/Casino exterior

Not the best photo, as it was quite difficult to find photograph,
but it gives you some idea of the scale of the main hall of the old station.

It is now the main hall of the casino.

Looking up

I am not at all surprised that this building sent the state
bankrupt when it was bult in the early 20th century

After getting some photos of the hotel and railway station I took the circle line bus around the CBD. This like the tram was a free service (the tram is only free in the CBD), and serves much the same purpose as Melbourne's city circle tram, giving commentary about various attractions and landmarks as you go. It was a good way to see parts of the CBD I hadn't covered by foot, and actually made me realise the city is bigger than I thought. All up the circle line took about 30 minutes for the full lap.

After that I decided I had better get a Jet Bus timetable to plan my trip to the airport later in the day so I went to the Adelaide Metro shop. All I can say is that the shop is so much better organised and staffed than the Metshop in Melbourne.

One thing I noticed was a battle of chocolate shops happening on the corner of King William Street and Rundle Mall, between Haigh's and Darrel Lea. We have both of these in Melbourne too, in fact Andrew made a post about the Melbourne Haigh's outlet with "the tapping man last week.

In the red corner we have Haigh's chocolates...

And in the blue corner we have Darrel Lea

At lunch time I headed to Rundle Mall. While there I had a look at some of the shops, and had lunch in one of the food courts. I also bought some stamps and postcards to send to my niece and nephew, which I wrote out a bit latter. I found a nice quiet spot on North Terrace in a small strip of park that runs along side the road in front of Government House. It was one of those spots that you could sit all day and just watch the people, cars and buses go past.

I walked onward past the State Library, past the Museum to the Art Gallery of South Australia. It was here I spent my last hour or so of my time in Adelaide. The gallery has quite a good collection (not that I know anything about art), with lots of Australian paintings, probably the most famous (to me anyway) being Tom Roberts A Break Away!. Also of note was a Jim Bill Henson photograph in the contemporary section. After seeing it I fail to see what the big deal is about.

By the time I left the gallery it really was time I started heading to the airport, so I returned to the hotel to pick up my bag and made my way to the nearest Jet Bus stop. I waited nearly 15 minutes and then scored the after school rush 1 or 2 stops down the street. It seemed to take forever as we stopped at nearly every stop. I need not have worried as I arrived at the airport with over an hour until my flight. There was no check in queue to be seen and I got to quick check a pretty good seat.

With some free time my first port of call was the Coopers ale house. It was there while watching some subsequent races on the TV that I realised that I had missed the Melbourne cup. Oh well. After having only one Coopers Sparkling Ale. From a bottle as they had none on tap! $$$... I thought I'd have look around the terminal.

I was quite surprised by how big the terminal is, which all airlines share. For international flights it appears that they close off sections to allow for the customs etc. Since I have come home I have realised that the airport is featured in the latest Jetstar ad on TV.

Adelaide Airport, very brown... earthy perhaps?

Looking the other way, this is the part that gets
closed off for international flights. The duty free shops
are currently closed.

I walked all the way down to the Tiger gate where a flight was unloading and was about to load. I was glad I wasn't flying on that flight, the lounge was full of screaming kids (no offence intended to any parents who travel with kids).

Singaporean Tiger, her distinctive stripes are not
visible from this angle.

Then past the Virgin Blue gates.



While I was in the Coopers bar with all the suits a flight had arrived from Sydney, and soon flew back there.





In the mean time the plane that I would fly to Melbourne on arrived from Darwin.

My ride home, a 2003 vintage 737

The flight itself was quite uneventful. I managed to take a few more photos during the flight, but sun glare made it quite difficult towards the end. I'm unsure as to wether photos are allowed during take off and landing, cameras aren't specifically mentioned on the saftey card while video cameras are. What category does a digital camera come under?

I decided to take some photos during take off anyway.

As we turn toward MelbourneI got a good view
of Glenelg and the Airport

Also illustrates how dry Adelaide really is

We had just past the Grampians when we began our decent.

Spoilers deployed at the top of descent, the Grampians
are the greenish lumps towards the horizon.

We flew past Maldon and Castlemaine and for much of the latter part of the flight another aircraft was visible just ahead of us.

The aircraft that we are following flies over Mount Macedon

After turning on to our approach for the runway I realised I could still see the Grampians in the distance. I thought I took a photo of them, but I'm not sure now as it was really hard to see the LCD screen in the glare. I think the Grampians might be just to the right, out of this shot...

The tops of some hills that may or may not be the Grampians
stick out above the haze.

From here our flight path took us over the towns of Lancefield and Romsey, and eventually to the runway.