June 15th, 2009
Perhaps it would make a great new marketing slogan for the city, though my observations are probably clouded as I only spent just over two hours in the airport after a 15 hour flight. The first thing that strikes you about it, for a city in the United Arab Emirates, well it just doesn’t seam particularly Arab. After spending half the flight being force fed beer by the very friendly flight attendants and only getting about four hours sleep, I was pretty keen to stretch my legs. Local time: 5:30am. Temperature on the ground: 34ᴼ. Out of the plane, down the stairs, on to the tarmac. Nothing like the smell of humidity and Jet A in the morning. Read the rest of this entry »
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June 11th, 2009
As part of my trip to Melbourne, I had to sort out the purchase of a Mac laptop for my father so that he can continue to work while he is in hospital. While there are plenty of Apple Resellers around, the Apple owned store is located at the suburban shopping centre of Chadstone. The fact that I had a $50 Chadstone gift card given to me at Christmas that would expire soon sealed my fate. That is where I was going.
I jump in the Jeep. Most of you know how feel about driving at the best of times. The most direct route is on the M1 motorway. Despite only being upgraded from an arterial road to a 6 late freeway a little over 10 years ago, it was being widened again, no doubt at great expense. I know that Melbourne’s population has been growing quite quickly, but at a rate that would justify a 33% increase in freeway capacity after just 10 years? Surely this is the wrong way to be going. I digress, this post isn’t about freeways. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Travel Blog, Planning, Holiday 09 | No Comments »
June 4th, 2009
While technically I am not on my holiday yet, due to my father being sick, I have had to jet down to Melbourne for a few days before I head off to Morocco. Despite being warned about writing in the public domain, I thought I would give it a go again to see if I could be responsible.
Travelling to Melbourne is usally uneventful. I catch the train to the airport, usually a little early so I can get a pint or two into me before getting on the plane, where a few tinnies usually follow. Tonight was the same, the plane was on time, denying me the opportunity to get really flogged. However, it was surrieal, both in the lounge and on the plane, the news was all about Air France flight 447. Shocking images, a 3d image of a plane going through turbulence, a plane getting struck by lightening, montages of other Airbus A330’s. Once apon a time is was considered verboten to talk about plane crashes in an airport or while actually flying. Now it is broadcast directly to your own personal video screen in your seat.
Rationally, it doesn’t bother me. Flying is still by far the safest form of transport. Planes don’t just fall out of the sky. It is usually a number of cascading failures that cause a fatal crash like this. Hell, even Emirates managed to undercalculate the weight of a A340 (same airline and model as I am flying with on Sunday) by 100 tons, resulting in a very slow take off, running off the end of the runway taking out the approach lighting and ILS antenna with them and still managed to bring the plane down safely.
My heart goes out to the relatives and friends of the victims of AF447. I wish I could say this would be the last time that something like this happens. My gut feeling is that it wont be the case. Airlines are burning money, getting lazy, we could see air travel become dangerous again, like it was in the first half of the 20th century. The world may just get bigger again.
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November 19th, 2007
From ABC News:
Senator Boswell says he can not explain why the Coalition is performing poorly in the opinion polls.
Five days out from the election, the polls are still predicting a Labor win, as they have done for months.
He says Australia is enjoying prosperous times and he does not understand why the polls are not reacting.
“I would have thought we’d deserved to get out and win this election,” he said.
The fact that he doesn’t know why he, and the rest of his mates are about to get tossed out on the asses suggests that they really are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges we are facing.
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June 1st, 2007
And in other news: Undeniable link between daylight and the sun found
Brutal analysis to follow (once I get this stupid assignment done).
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
