Greek Trams

SIRIO-NA02
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

Keeping to the theme of trams I thought you might appreciate this tram from Athens which was apparently designed by some italian that designs Ferraris. Not that I care about cars.

On another note ANZAC day passed by and I wondered why the Turks are so happy to let us go over to hang out on a cliff face commerating our attempted invasion of their country. Maybe they don't care because we LOST the battle. They probably find it quite amusing.

Anyway, the day after ANZAC day (which funnily enough was Tuesday) I was walking past the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park and saw them taking down the Australian flag (and other flags that I didn't recognise). Funny thing was that they were putting them in milk crates! You'd think those diggers would have grown out of that sort of thievery...

Sorry about the length of time between posts - and this one is also a bit brief and ill conceived. But I've been a bit busy pondering cockroaches - every one I meet seems to think there is nothing that can be done about them. You know - it's OK to have cockroaches

But I bet Princess Mary didn't have cockroaches in her hotel when she came here. What did they use to get rid of them? Apparently boric acid is an environmentally friendly way of killing the f**kers. Maybe Fred stayed up late at night - tipping it down the cracks around the bed.

Those crazy Danes...

Tram boy arrested at gunpoint: witness

From The Age 18 April 2005
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

I like trams.

In fact I like most forms of 'public transport' including trams, trains and planes. But I don't like buses all that much.

Any way I thought it was pretty cool that this young Melbourne Tram Spotter stole a tram for 45 minutes and managed to drive it further than most professional tram drivers would in the same time period .... and he picked up and dropped passengers along the way... None of whom noticed that anything was remiss.

According to The Melbourne Age it seems that:

...the 15-year-old used the test run on Friday night to work out how to use the complicated braking system.

Well it seems like he did a pretty good job if this map is anything to go by. If you actually tried to catch a tram along this route you wouldn't be able to - you'd need to catch at least two trams and it would probably take an hour and a half.

The kid is a true legend.

It would be un-Australian to say otherwise.

PS - thanks to today's The Age for the picture and quotes.

Kill Your Video

Kill Your Video
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

I was in Melbourne again over the weekend and saw this poster in Little Lonsdale St.

I thought it was kinda cool but then when I checked out the website killyourvideo.com I was sorely disappointed.

It's just another example of a big company trying to gain cred by using street culture and 'youth protest' to advertise a product. Nike are probably the worst culprits but now Pioneer are jumping in the bandwagon.

What is funny though is the competion that they are running for people to upload quicktime movies showing videos being destroyed. I checked out this example because it scored 9/10. After I watched it I was rather bemused as to why it got such a huge score because, sad to say, it is pretty crap. So I voted 1/10.

However, I noticed that my vote brought the score down to 5/10! Now if my maths is correct that means only TWO people voted for that film. I tried this out with one of the other films with similar (but slightly less dramatic results). I suspec all the vids are made up by some cocaine snorting marketing types in St Kilda Rd.

Would anyone like to start a smashyourdvd website? The URL is available - I checked.

Graffiti

Who is this guy. This graffiti is all over Sydney. He even turned it into a 'crop circle' that made it into the papers.

.

I went to take a library book back and I stumbled across this model of Sydney (below). It's huge and so detailed. It's a pity my camera phone takes such cruddy photos.

If you want to check it out it's in the Town Hall on the floor under the library.

Finally a decent shot of the bicycle helmet wearing trumpet player. This was at lunch time today.

I see this guy playing the trumpet so often now that I actually look out for him!

I took this photo while we waited in the queue outside Spice I Am in Surry Hills.

This place has the most amazing Thai food I ever had. We were starving by the time we got in there, so we got stuck into some spring rolls and a'crispy fish' salad. FANTASTIC.

1000 Paper Cranes

1000 Paper Cranes
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

We've been seeing these paper cranes stuck to the backs of street signs etc around Surry Hills.

Each one is numbered out of a 1,000 like a limited edition print. We thought that was a pretty cool idea.

But yesterday we saw this crane with text added - it seems like the artist is referencing the Sadoko story about the Japanese girl that makes a 1,000 origami cranes.

The text says:

1,000 paper cranes
to make a wish come true...
1,000 paper cranes
to cure a sickness...

A new sign of peace for the big city.

Light House on Old South Head Rd

Light House on Old South Head Rd
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

We went for a drive on Tuesday night to the end of Old South Head Rd. There is this amazing lighthouse up there. I don't think I've ever been close to an actual WORKING lighthouse before.

St Jeromes

St Jeromes
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

By the way - if you are ever in Melbourne check this bar out. I'm not going to tell you where it is because the joy about Melbourne bars is finding them. All I will say is that it's in a laneway near David Jones.

Starting out

We're still getting the hang of Sydney after moving up from Melbourne in January. The one thing we miss are the Melbourne bars.

Last night we went to Cafe Lounge in Surry Hills - was a bit like a Melbourne bar in that it was small and low key. We liked it enough to go back I think. Our other local is the Hollywood Hotel which is an old deco Sydney pub. Also nearby is Uchi Lounge which is a really fantastic Japanese bar. The restaurant upstairs is also great.

The one thing that Sydney does have over Melbourne is low-cost food places. After Cafe Lounge we went to Don Don in Oxford St. I've been going there for a long time 'cause I use to visit Sydney a lot for work. This is a cute Japanese food place with ultra hip waitresses. I think as it's got more popular the quality has slipped a bit but it's still cheap and a great place to go.

I'm becoming more fascinated with the trumpet playing bicycle courier busker that plays in Martin Place in the mornings and then in random locations during peak hour after work. I want to get a decent photo of him sometime. Yesterday I saw him in Martin Place and then after work outside Woolworths in George St. This is my photo attempt but unfortunately you can't see anything 'cause it was too dark for my camera phone!

Crnr Pitt and Park
Originally uploaded by Rodsta.

Uhm. Somewhere in this photo is the trumpet playing busker. He does a great rendition of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.