Random City Photies

We were taking not an Asahi, but a cup of coffee at Riverland at Federation Wharf. It was a bit early for beer. The Yarra ferries glided past in near perfect weather.


We walked through the interior of Fed Square. I don't know what these fabric drops were for, but plenty of people were taking photos. I brushed past one and it was the lightest fabric you can imagine.


Out into Flinders Lane, I puzzled about what business was run by McDonalds of Sydney and Wellington. Google is not always your friend. More puzzling was that its Melbourne presence was not evident in any way apart from it actually being here.

Buying an airconditioner

Do you have a split system air con unit yet? No? You probably will at some point. Maybe you will use it for heating as well as cooling, as we do.

Ours is a Daikin. Although we had a problem with it in early days, for some reason the circuit board on the exterior part became damp, it is now nine years old and still working very well. It was not especially cheap, I don't think Daikens are. Mother's is only one year old and hers is a cheapie and not a patch on ours.

I am sure they are online calculators to work out the size of the unit you need.

But what you really need is an inverter air con unit. I don't know the tech stuff about them, but what I understand is that instead of the compressor cutting in and out, it speeds up and slows down, making it more energy efficient, and more comfortable and less noisy inside. The maximum exterior decibels the exterior part registers as 65db, relatively quiet.

I really would advise you, don't go for the cheap when you are buying a split system air conditioning unit.

Young Drivers

Yes, young drivers. They drive badly. They speed. They take drugs. They drink and drive. They are so aggressive when they are driving. The message 'speed kills' never seems to get through to them.

Btw, have I ever mentioned that when I was nineteen, I got my Valiant up to 97 miles per hour (157km/h) on a straight stretch of road? I can't define valve bounce, but that is what the engine did. I was so disappointed that I could not crack the ton. The VF 225 cubic inch hemi straight six twin venturi carby motor would just not do it. I should have bought bigger wheels for the car. It would have done it then.

Back then, there was a speed limit, but I think it was variable depending on the conditions. I really can't remember. It was fun to go fast though. I can remember my grandfather taking us in his Zephyr over the Hanover Street rail overpass in Oakleigh at a speed where the car seemed to leave the ground. But my father never drove too fast, as he weaved his drunken way home from the pub. He was a safe and conservative driver.

Ah, the good old days. Some remember them as such and decry the present nanny state. I am not so sure that they were really always the good old days.

Across the River

I read some fine writing by bloggers yesterday. I was feeling quite insecure about my hasty prose. I suspect they can write well and at speed, while thinking about what they write. I have to remind myself, people who write well like writing and do it well. People who don't like writing just don't do it and then there are those in between such as moi who enjoy writing, but don't do it terribly well.

So today's post will be photo based. It is hard to believe that these murals have been on these walls for so long, yet they aren't spoiled by graffiti. This one stands alone.


It was pointless to try and do a photo stitch in such limited space. These two photos make up one mural. Of course you can probably see the area where the photos were taken by looking at names on the murals, but has anyone seen them before? Altona Beach main street, opposite the pier, is a quiet and friendly local shopping centre, albeit with some trendy cafes. The sun was shining with little breeze as I sat on a bench at the beach and ate my chicken sandwich.

Bois and Charbons

S'cuse my French. I translate the sign as Wood and Coal. Charbons is not to be confused with charabanc. There is no connection, well for some reason there was in my head.

I have seen this site myself. I don't know why I did not take a photo. Maybe I did not have a camera. This rather good photo is by Adam Maher and is published on Deviant Art. It is near to the old Abbotsford Convent, which for want of an accurate description, I will just call the convent an arts hub.

I knew this sign was painted for a scene in a movie but I never bothered to find out which one. However, I heard the other day which movie it was and it rather makes sense.

The movie was The White Mouse, a biographical tv movie about the late Nancy Wake's time as a British agent in the French Resistance during WWII. While she was actually born in New Zealand, as we do, Australia now claims her as our own as she grew up in here. While I have never been fond of her when I have seen her being interviewed or some of her attitudes to society, I certainly recognise her as a war heroine.

Nancy Wake died on the 7th of August, this year.

A Tram to Docklands

Let me check. Yes, I can get a tram to Docklands. I can get one of several. Some might suggest a tram is a good way to get to Docklands. Well, unless you want to pay extremely high parking fees, it is either a tram or walk.

Check further. Three termini at Docklands, so it rather depends where you want to go. There is a minor terminus for route 30,which come from St Vincents Plaza along Latrobe Street. But it only runs weekdays with a twelve minute service and terminates on the edge of Docklands.

Victoria Harbour has the route 48, plus two other routes, one being the 31 from Hoddle Street, but while it has an ok twelve minute service, it stops at 2.30pm and is only weekdays. The route 11 has a full service, around ten minutes during the day. I conclude, Victoria Harbour is well served and while this Collins Street route is very useful for workers at Victoria Harbour it is not of much use for visitors to Docklands.

To penetrate right into Docklands, you need a tram that goes to Harbour Town/Waterfront City. The free City Circle tram uses Latrobe and Flinders Street, depending whether you are travelling clockwise or not, to get to Harbour Town. It is a twelve minute service but it doesn't start until 10am and finishes at 9pm.

The 70 runs full time along Flinders Street with a daytime service of ten to twelve minutes and the 86 runs along Bourke Street with a daytime weekday service of around eight minutes.

So which to take to get to Harbour Town, or Waterfront City as it is also called?

Coming from home, if it was a weekday, I would opt for an 86 along Bourke Street as the maximum waiting time would be eight minutes, in theory. Weekends, I might be tempted by a 70 and City Circle in Flinders Street, but the CC can get very crowded. Then again, the 86 drops to ten to twelve minute service on weekends.

Sunday night with a half hour service on the two routes is a different matter. Lordy, they arrive five minutes apart. Oh noes, they depart not evenly, but seven minutes apart.

Well, after this research, for tram users who know the system and walk around with live tram times on the phones, it is not such a bad service to Docklands. But for a stranger to our fair city who asks the question how do I get to Darklands Docklands, sorry, the answer might be a tram in Flinders Street, or Collins Street, or Bourke Street, or Latrobe Street.

Boris Bikes

Just beside the building next door we now how a rack of bicycles for hire. They are spreading all over the city and inner areas. Barely two hundred metres away in the beginning of Queens Road, there is another rack.

London and Paris both have bicycle schemes, but theirs are much more successful because bicycle helmets aren't required to be worn by law as they are here. I believe, no, I will check... Right, there are some helmet vending machines but mostly they are available from 7 11 stores. The 7 11 near us has them and they cost $5. From the website, they look a bit like a pudding bowl on your head. R, who does not like bicycles, is tempted to have a ride. I think it is a great scheme. I wonder if Sydney is getting into it yet. I just imagine the atrocious Alan Jones ranting on the airwaves about it.

I was amused by Ian Visits blog, when he and a friend hired bikes in London, took them on the Eurostar to Paris, rode around all day, and had them back in London that night.

Anyway, named after the Mayor of London, Boris Johnston, their bikes have been nicknamed Boris Bikes. Catchy isn't it. We should have a name for our bikes. Let's see. Melbourne's Lord Mayor is Robert Doyle. Rob Bikes? Nah, I've got it. A common nickname for Robert is Bob, so we have Bob Bikes. Will it catch on?

But for Sydney, with a mayor called Clover Moore, well, I am not sure much naming can be done there. Moore Bikes. No.

If it looks like a duck...

quacks like a duck, it must be a swan.

While my dislike of ex planning minister Justin Madden knew no bounds for the the approval of the destruction of our history and outrageous planning decisions that some have suggested were corrupt, it seems the new planning minister Matthew Guy is tarred with the same brush. Oddly, ex Minister Madden is now occupied with protesting against the construction of a tall building being built near his home.

Number three to five St Kilda Road St Kilda is an approved site for a twenty six storey apartment building. Planning Minister Guy called the development in, meaning he took approval out of the City of Port Phillip's hands, and approved it. The council would not have approved the building. The local residents certainly didn't want it. Just like Madden used to, Guy rides rough shod over council's and resident's wishes and opinions.

What is wrong with a high rise building in a street of highrise buildings? Well, that part of St Kilda Road is not highrise at all. Single and double storey building surround the site. It is a very dominant location, slightly up St Kilda hill from the Junction.

Here are a couple of photos of the site I took from a tram as I passed by.



It is such an incredibly inappropriate location for a twenty six storey building. Clearly there is a lack of influential people living nearby, unlike when the ever so posh Domain apartment building was about to lose some of its views by a tall building being built nearby.

Domain resident's objections were received from property developer and former chief of Crown Casino, Lloyd Williams, trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, former City of Melbourne Lord Mayor, former Liberal Party treasurer and boss of the Australian Grand Pricks organisation, Ron Walker, and state parliament MLC Andrea Coote. I believe one former Federal MP, Peter Reith (balaclava clad scabs on the docks, along with attack dogs, and a son racking up monster phone bills for us taxpayers to pay, and lies about refugees throwing their children overboard from a boat, if you need some reminding), may well own an apartment there too. Their objections were sustained and planning permission denied.

So Minister Guy, I am not suggestion any corruption or favours for mates, but you need to be very careful of the adage, if it looks like a duck....

A Goat Track

A goat track might be an obvious pair of words, but it has a meaning when planners are deciding where paths go. A contractor was once telling me about some work he was doing at Monash University. The plans for a path across an open grassed area were clearly marked, but a so called goat track had already worn into the grass where the students were walking. He wanted the plans amended so that the path would be laid where the goat track had formed. His request was denied. The last time he was on the site proved the point. No one was using the path but continuing to use the goat track. Paths must go where people actually walk as the building next to us discovered.

Look at the photo. See the path enclosing the garden bed? It is kind of horse shoe shaped around the garden bed. An additional path passes through the middle of the bed. That was how it was originally.

But the it is a corner block. People were taking a short cut, across lawn to get to the path and cut off the street corner, so a short section was added that leads to the main footpath, on the left of the photo. It became a practical shortcut to cut off the corner. It was a curvy path and if you have seen the movie Mon Oncle, it was somewhat like walking the garden path to the front door of the house. I always walked on the path whereas R cut out the curve in the path and walked across the lawn.

Many people cut across the lawn and while the lawn was watered, it coped with the foot traffic, but come the drought and the water was shut off, a hard goat track was worn to shortcut the winding path. You can see the dirt area between the old and new paths.

Now a more direct path has been laid and no one will be walking on the grass anymore. The bright white new path meets the old path just out of the photo on the right. Paths need to go where people will walk, not where planners and landscapers think they should go.

A pinch of acrophobia was involved in taking this photo.

Two heads better than one

I have forgotten why our friend from Japan had a Tasmanian bear. Obviously it was a gift, but who lives or is connected to Tassie and would appreciated the gift. Regardless, cute isn't it, or should that be aren't they.

The L Platers

As did my peers, by the age of 14 I was quite proficient with the mechanics of driving, with only road skills to develop. By the age of 18 I was quite experienced enough with on road driving. I decided to have a lesson with a professional instructor, a woman who had been an instructor for years. In spite of me disliking her Hillman Hunter intensely, I must have been ok, as she did not say I need umpteen lessons, but that I was ready to go for my licence. The day after I turned eighteen, I had my driving licence. Much as I now dislike driving, it is impossible to imagine not being able to drive.

I was on a tram in Lygon Street and it stopped between stops and the driver was ringing his bell at a learner driver who was sitting on the tram tracks while waiting for cars to clear in the opposite direction before completing his or her turn into the Vic Roads street, the driving licence authority. I have seen this before at the same location. They are professional driving instructors teaching the students to drive, yet they have their students sit illegally on the tram tracks and blocking a tram.

I remember when a blogger from the past returned from working in London and needed a driving licence in Australia. Blonde as a Brunette had a very nasty time with three different instructors, as I recall.

But surely if you use such a top organisation, such as The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, you expect the driving instructor standards to be high. Maybe three hundred metres further down Lygon St, almost at Elgin Street, there is another student driver sitting right on top of a 'Keep Clear' painted on the road. This was not one of those dodgy ACME driving instructors, but no less than the RACV.

Once Professor Fels has finished his enquiry into the our taxi industry, perhaps he could start on the driving instructor mess. And include the RACV. It is one thing for parents to teach their children bad driving habits, but quite another when supposedly professional instructors just don't seem to have a clue.

Maccas Coffee

Some time ago I had a rant about McDonalds coffee. Mother is food allergic. She is allergic to almost every food known to man and woman kind but oddly, she is not allergic to McDonald's food. It is her favourite place to dine, so dine there we do, every so often.

My post was about how the television advertising showed the McDonalds staff making a nice cup of coffee and serving it in a china cup. That was not my experience. I was served a disgusting cup of coffee for an extremely high price and in a paper cup. I don't flatter myself that my post made Maccas change their mindset, but I am sure what I wrote did not go unnoticed. Shortly after, Maccas went down the road of baristas to make coffee. Yeah, right.

I thought it was Mother who told me this story, but no, it was R. He was at a Maccas place for work reasons. A woman nearby had bought a cup of coffee from the McCafe counter and she was moaning on to her husband that it came in a paper cup and not like it was now being advertised on tv where it was served in a china cup. She arose from her seat and took her latte to the counter and complained. I often have cafe latte. A well made latte is a joyous thing, especially if they get the froth right. It needs to be silky smooth, pattern on top or not, not withstanding. Once the delicious froth is spooned off, below is the delicious coffee.

So what did the McDonald's barista do with the latte that the woman complained about because it was served in a paper cup? She tipped in into a china cup and presented it back to the woman.

All that money Maccas spent on advertising and possibly training some people how to make coffee properly to try to convince the coffee connoisseurs of Melbourne that they were in the running in the decent coffee stakes.

There truly is joy in my life.

Ten years on

It is just over ten years since Shirley Strachan, the lead singer of Australia's greatest seventies band (no argument entered into) Skyhooks, was killed in a helicopter crash. I wasn't a great one for attending pop concerts but I did see Skyhooks live in a small venue. The teenage me was almost swooning with desire.

ABC Melbourne's broadcaster Red Symons, a band member of Skyhooks, said it solemnly and without further comment when introducing a tribute, 'It is ten years since my friend Shirley died'.



Of course I had to look at some other Skyhooks clips. I won't embed this one, just a link. Red sings quite a bit and Shirley is topless. I wonder how the sixty plus year old Red explains it to his teenage kids!

http://youtu.be/zE7kY6uQHAA

Oh, and today is the anniversary of the death of Diana who's humanity changed the English royal family forever. The world is a better place for her having been a royal. A fabulous photo of her here, and a nice one of her ex husband and sons.