Hands Up Who is Surprised?

Anyone? ... No I didnt't think so.

New train, tram operators for Melbourne

Clay Lucas and Mex Cooper
June 25, 2009 - 11:13AM .
Connex has been stripped of its contract to operate Melbourne's train system, with Hong Kong-backed company Metro Trains Melbourne to take its place.

The city's trams will also have a new operator with Keolis Downer EDI ousting the incumbent Yarra Trams as the government's preferred tenderer.

Yarra Trams is a small suprise but Connex was a no-brainer. Of course also the opposition are asking for Kosky's head on a spike as well. Always tough when you make a big change like this as a minister. If you leave the status quo you are seen to be inactive, yet if you do change you are seen to have made a mistake.

The Quandary

Say you were walking along on the way back to the office after lunch and you noticed an elderly (and possibly homeless) woman taking a dump in a laneway and her sheet of newspaper (toilet paper) blows away, what do you do?

1. pick it up and hand it back;
2. avert your eyes and keep walking;
3. suggest to your workmate that he should pick the paper up and give it back; or
4. any other suggestions?

Seriously this is what happened today. Sometimes you cannot make this stuff up.

Why I Drink Beer

Somehow I think the theory may have some flaws in it.

Knackers Rating - Tim Winton Breath

Now before I start my review this is in today's paper:

Tim Winton wins Miles Franklin award for Breath

Blanche Clark
June 19, 2009 12:00am

TIM Winton last night won Australia's most prestigious literary prize, the Miles
Franklin Literary Award, for his novel Breath.
Winton is the only writer to have won the award four times in his own right. Thea
Astley has won it four times, but was a joint winner twice.
"I'm stoked, but also mindful that there are terrific writers who will be feeling pretty stiff tonight, because their books are more than good enough to have won," Winton
said....

So obviously there are some people out there who like the book. As for me? well I have read a fair few Tim Winton books in the past such as Cloud Street or the Turning. This book to me is like unfinished work.

The main theme of a boy coming of age is an excellent and interesting topic especially as a male reader. Being able to relate to characters and themes also helps.

But the book just stops. 90% of the book is about a couple of years in the central characters life and the other 10% covers another 40 years or so. Even then vast tracks are glossed over in a paragraph.

There was a lot more opportunity to explore the theme he developed about the way we are and the way we turn out as a result of our teenage years.

It annoyed me as i wanted to know more. It was as if Winton was saying "well you know that much you should work out the rest, it is obvious isn't it?". Sorry Tim, not so obvious.

SO what's the rating?

no knackers - shockingly bad
one knacker - as bad as hitler because he only had on ball
two knackers - normal and average
three knackers - above and beyond the normal
four knackers - incredible
five knackers - as rare as five testicles

Today I am giving Breath by Tim Winton a rating of 3.2765 knackers... Above and beyond normal but by no means incredible.

Darebin Historical Information

Firstly apologies for the lack of posting over the last few days. IT issues.

Anyway a news article in the Preston Leader the other day about how the Darebin Libraries are now listing a lot of the historical information about the city and localities.

So this all leads to the following website:

It certainly has some interesting facts and history about various locations in the are of Northcote and Preston. It even has the history about how this blog gets it's name.

WTF 30 - OUCH

Erotic 'daggering' dance craze causing bodily harm

By Kate Schneider
June 03, 2009 08:10am
AN erotic dance craze is thought to be the cause of a recent spate of broken penises in Jamaica, and now faces a government crackdown.

"Daggering", a lewd dance style where couples simulate dry sex in various positions to the beat of the music, is characterised by over-the-top gyrating, heavy pelvis-thrusting and daredevil leaps.

Many couples have taken the “rough” daggering dance from the club to the bedroom, with disastrous consequences.Jamaican doctors were prompted to issue a warning on the dangers of daggering when presented with a range of fractured penises caused by rough intercourse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp_0p6Hc3_I

Ouch. This is why I do not dance.

Knackers Rating - Northcote Social Club

Ahhh the Social Club. Once a bikie hangout and now a pivotal part of the High Street Strip in Northcote.



The pub is like what used to be found closer in to the city in Fitzroy and Calrton before they were bought out and turned into Yuppie bars and chic restaurants.

Having been a patron to the pub for a few years now the place feels comfortable when you walk in. With a real mixed bag of patrons everyone is welcome making for an atmosphere hard to manufacture.

The good points about the place include:

The band venue. The northern suburbs have had a reduction in decent band venues with the closure of the likes of the Punters Club and pressure on others like the Tote. With a medium sized room the place has really gone out of it's way to make it a great experience to see bands up close. It has also always been a non smoking room as well whic always made for an interesting (cough) experience when the crowd came out between bands.

Front Bar. The front bar is like most others around in the older pubs. A big long bar where people can sit and others can still get service.

No pokies. Say no more.

Different Zones. With the front bar, dining area (beer deck), side hall and pool area there is usually a spot to get some space to enjoy the joint.

The negatives are really minor in comparison.

Drink Prices. Are probably slightly higher than another pub but this is negated when the prices in the band room are the same as the front bar.

Toilets. Ok I had to thin kof something. all of Downstairs is via a set of small dunnys in the deck area often resulting in queues or upstairs via the drunken ankle wrecker of a staircase. The bonus with the men's upstairs is the accoustics from the band room are fantastic up there.

SO what's the rating?

no knackers - shockingly bad
one knacker - as bad as hitler because he only had on ball
two knackers - normal and average
three knackers - above and beyond the normal
four knackers - incredible
five knackers - as rare as five testicles

Today I am giving the NSC a nice rating of 4.273 knackers... Huzzah!

So let me know if you have been there and what you thought.

Some Ideas Worth Considering

You may know I have a vested interest in things relating to Water. So seeing some results of a committee could lead to further developments. Some key points include:

■Wider use of "water offset" schemes, such as the one that allowed Flemington Racecourse to use extra water because it paid for water savings to be achieved at a third-party business.
■Promised environmental flows be delivered to rivers such as the Yarra "as a matter of priority".
■Contracts for the Wonthaggi desalination plant be designed to allow for water production volumes to vary each year, ensuring excess water is not purchased in wet years.
■The Auditor-General should review the effectiveness of water restrictions.
■Installation of water-saving devices such as shower heads and dual-flush toilets should be mandatory every time a property is sold or leased.

Also mentioned is the fact that:

the volume of stormwater running off central Melbourne each year was more than the city's annual consumption, yet policy decisions and planning rules remained the major barrier to increased adoption of rainwater tanks.

What it means is that as a community we should be looking at further ways to reduce consumption, replace supplies and to recycle. Personally I feel that the recycling part is where there could be the greatest benefits.

To give you an idea the Kraft Vegemite factory in Port Melbourne discharges in the order of 300,000 litres per day into the sewer system. That is equivalent to a population of over 1,900 people using their 155 litres per day.

There needs to be more effort invested into Community scale systems that allow for economies of scale compared to isolated systems resulting in a cheaper and more reliable source. Also with the upcoming increase in water prices, such schemes would become more economically viable.

Time for some changes?

To my avid reader(s), please accept the changes to the blog display as a token of my appreciation.

If you don't like them then:

Is It Too Late?

To change or add to my list of ten people I do not want to hear about anymore?