Tag: Melbourne

Rockbank Woes


I was sleeping in this morning and caught the 6.30am news on the bedside radio. The news which caught my attention was that somewhere in Melbourne someone has been charged for butchering and selling meat illegally, notably dog meat.

It turned out it was in Rockbank, a suburb on the north west of Melbourne, near Deer Park.

I have to confess I feared the offender being Chinese, but thankfully (hopefully) this seems unlikely. Admittedly the data I looked up was from the 2006 census but there appears to be no Chinese population in this town. Maltese, Italians, English, Kiwis and Cypriots were the major groups.

I hope the offenders get dealt with properly and this sort of thing ceases to be a problem here.

Related articles

Thriller in the Arena? Marathon in Melbourne?


English: Djokovic with the Australian open trophy
Image via Wikipedia

The game was way past the 3 hour mark when I said to Kiddo I needed to go to bed. Djokovic was 2-1 up and looking good in the fourth and it was about 11.30pm. When I was up at about 5.45am this morning I grabbed the iPad to check out the results…

What do you know – it was a thriller in the Rod Laver Arena, a super-human marathon in Melbourne! The nearly 6 hour 5-set match was almost 9 times as long as a Wimbledon final in 1936 (apparently – thanks to Wikipedia) when Fred Perry won it in 3, in 40 minutes! Djokovic has beaten Nadal so many times now, and has held the Australian Open title 2 years running. What a player he has turned out to be. I remember noticing him when he was making fun of Sharapova, mimicking her actions – hence the “Joker” moniker I guess.

For many people today is back to work day. What a way to finish off the summer holidays for these folks, being treated to a grand tennis match. Thank you Novak and Rafael…

Related articles

Australia Day


Australia Day yesterday brought perfect weather to Melbourne. A top of 24 deg with a slight cool breeze and picture perfect sunny conditions saw a few of us sitting by the poolside of Gerry and Jesslyn’s new home, sipping a crisp white and nibbling at fruits and Chinese New Year biscuits. It was a little farewell party for Jesslyn’s mum, who was returning to Singapore after spending close to a year helping them with their beautiful 2 year old. The mum is affectionately known to all of us as Poh Ma Ma and we’re all better for having known her this past year.

We were there from noon, after Tress and I spent the morning grocery shopping and preparing a salad – with yummy barbequed chicken breast marinated in lemon pepper, paprika and tumeric. We only left after 7.30pm, got home and took Scruff to the park for a little bit, before settling down to watch the Federer v Nadal semi-final of the Aussie Open.

It was a perfect day in so many ways.

Related articles

Elliptical Ride


I’ve been down to a max of 2 runs a week now. Most weeks it’s just once. Other days I’d be on the elliptical cross-trainer – less impact.

This morning it was a very labored 7k. It took more than 45 minutes. Extremely embarrassing except it doesn’t bother me much these days.  It no longer bothers me I don’t do a 10k in 45 minutes, and as long as I’m doing some form of cardio work out at least 3 times a week, it’ll do by me.

The bigger worry is the lack of picture of the future. I don’t know what I want to do. I guess I can go on doing what I’m doing now, but that would mean (after February) coming home to an empty house for a couple of hours before Tress comes home, and wondering what else I can fill my time with other than doing my MST studies. I’m not sure if I should be returning to a legal role instead. It would be more satisfying in terms of doing work each day, to just turn it on, boom booom boom, and then coming home at the end of it all before doing 1-2 hours of MST studies.  The pay packet would be heaps better too, which would come in extremely handy given what has to go to the nation’s capital city to keep kiddo going.

Yesterday I sort of worked out kiddo’s calendar, to have the key dates set out so that we have a better idea of whether any given weekend would be a good one for us to be with her. I think I’ll see a fair bit of the Hume Highway going forward. Maybe missing a few weekends at church here in Melbourne too.

I wish the route ahead is as “non-impact”  as the elliptical trainer.

Related articles

Weekends, soon to be different


English: Category:Images of Canberra Burton an...
Image via Wikipedia

The VTAC offers are scheduled to be released today. Any hopes of Kiddo opting for a BA/LLB course in Monash have been reduced to a mere theoretical possibility, as she has been really excited about doing the PhB course in ANU in Canberra instead. I have in fact, paid a deposit for her residential college in the Burton and Garran Hall (“B&G”). Tress had also set Kiddo up with a supplementary credit card and got it activated and ready to go. We’re likely to be taking that long hike to Canberra again, around the second week of Feb.

On Saturday, we made a vegetable soup together. It’s a continuation of Kiddo’s cooking lessons. The class took place in between two hefty sessions of cleaning. After the usual vacuuming, Tress, Kiddo and I settled down for some soup, after which I went out and continued hacking down our overgrown Silver Stirling hedges. Well not exactly hacking down but bringing them down from a monstrous 3+ meters to a more manageable 2 meters or so. Earlier that morning Tress and I had gotten up early to get to Tullamarine again – this time taking a young lady doctor from Mulgrave who was going back to Malaysia for a short holiday. We got to her home just before 7, dropped her off at Tulla just before 8am and got to the Vic Market to get stuff for a barbeque we did last night. So all in it was a long and busy day and after prepping the communion spiel and other bits I had to do in church the next day, the 3 of us settled down to a game of cards for a bit.

On Friday we had gone to the Knox for a movie – a very ordinary Sherlock Homes sequel (“Game of Shadows“). It was a disjointed and messy fare and loads of bomb blasts and slow-mo running, jumping and fist fights… sigh.

Last night we had 3 families over for a barbeque dinner. Sort of 3 families – one still has her hubby and kids in Singapore for their holidays, and she had returned to Melbourne early to go back to work. We again finished up late – it was about 12am when we got to bed, and gym this morning was sort of tough.

If it sounds like we’re trying to cramp our weekend, I guess I am. 3 weekends from now, our weekends will be very different. I just want to keep the good thing firing on all cylinders while we can.

Wintery Summer’s Day


It was 11 degrees at 5.40 this morning. At the gym people were in trackies and when I got in to the office it was still only 13 deg. As far as the weather goes in Melbourne, the only constant is change. It no longer feels strange to see, in the middle of January, people walking about on the streets with a jumper or coat. At the office this morning I had a meeting with a couple of external IT guys and one came in a jumper and the other, a sports coat.

When we first came here in 2004, the “spread” of temperature through the course of a day was a feature I marveled at. It could be 8 deg in the morning and 30 deg at 3pm. At least today it would remain cool throughout, hitting a top of 19 deg. We were often reminded to keep jackets in the car because you could almost be certain that the weather will change at some point.

We were out at the Tullamarine airport again last night, dropping a mate off with his daughter to resume his holiday and it was cool. It was our fourth trip to Tulla since New Year’s Eve and there will be at least one more this weekend. The first one on NYE was a sweltering night and last night, it was cool – all within a 10 day period.

It has been a mild summer but today feels anything but summery…

See this story on The Age

Winds deliver a dose of winter

Adam Cooper

January 11, 2012 – 9:48AM

 

Parts of Victoria have been buffeted by winds of more than 100km/h as Melbourne’s hot summer conditions give way to an unseasonal wintry blast.

Just a week after Victoria began the new year with a heatwave, high winds were recorded around the city this morning, with gusts of 95km/h felt in Frankston, 83km/h in Fawkner and 74km/h at Melbourne Airport.

The strongest winds were felt at South Channel Fort, in Port Phillip Bay near Sorrento, where a gust of 107km/h was recorded at 8.14am.

The State Emergency Service is monitoring the winds, but says there has been no major damage caused by falling trees.

However commuters on the Pakenham and Cranbourne train lines, in Melbourne’s south-east, will experience a longer trip to work after a tree fell on an overhead power line.

Metro has tweeted that services are suspended on the two lines between Oakleigh and Dandenong stations, with buses ferrying passengers between them.

Metro says outbound trains on the two lines will terminate at Oakleigh until further notice.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Terry Ryan said the high winds were felt around 8am today.

“We’ve had very windy weather this morning but conditions will be easing this afternoon as the front moves away and the high slowly moves towards us,” he said.

“The morning will be windy but the wind will back off this afternoon … we’ll have strong winds on the bay, but the real gales will be gone by 10 or 11am.”

Mr Ryan said snow had fallen at Mount Hotham, although it was not settling because the ground was too warm.

He said snow could fall at any time, but it was fairly unusual to record falls in the first two months of the year.

“We’re still recovering from spring, you might say. It’s more a spring event before we launch into the depths of summer,” he said.

A top temperature of 19 degrees has been forecast in Melbourne today, but it will be colder in other parts of Victoria.

Rain and high winds are expected in Ballarat, across Gippsland and on parts of the west coast.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/winds-deliver-a-dose-of-winter-20120111-1pu6s.html#ixzz1j6LIPFyn

 

 

Related articles

Cleaning and Waiting


With kiddo away for her version of schoolies Tress and I have been filling our time with stuff that revolves around people in church and food.

Last Wednesday night after my brief appearance in a board meeting at work we went out to a Chinese dumpling place. Then on Thursday we were at an Indian place with a couple o families and on Friday we met with about half a dozen other families in Brian and Doreen’s home for a break up dinner. On Sat it was at Alex and Li Har’s, this time for a farewell for a family who was relocating to WA.

Finally last night another half a dozen or so families came to our home for a roti and curry dinner.

Tress parents are coming to visit in a little over 2 weeks and together with the dinner last night, we had good reasons to go on a cleaning spree over the weekend. Following on from the previous weekend, we continued to sweep, wipe, mop, wash, vacuum and dust. The cool weather helped heaps and kept us going till it was time to get ready to get to Alex and Li Har’s.

We haven’t got anything else lined up for our home the next few weeks. Things have come to a halt now and like someone said to me last night, it would be a really good time of just reflecting on what to do, next year in particular that’s for sure but also from a more general sense, for the next ‘x’ number of years. In a sense, all that cleaning is to be ready for the waiting which must happen now.

Time’s Up With Church Board


After a false start, I decided yesterday, to leave the church board. It has been 4 years now. The last time I tried to leave was over 2 years ago but it was in the context of leaving the church then.

Back in 2009 I thought the church was all over the shop in its teachings and these were dished out not just over the pulpit but also during bible studies and even a funeral service. After that service in question, some leaders were standing around where the casket had stood and conducted what was called a cleansing ceremony. Other than being spooky it was also very worrying to say the least. I was starting to think there may be cloaks and candles to be pulled out next. The leader who was leading the ceremony had also started preaching funny stuff – statements like some songs were anointed and would therefore last but others weren’t (so maybe Rod Stewart and Queen were anointed) and that houses with spiders and insects meant the occupants had issues with their lives – they were “unclean”.

When leaders also allowed circus like The Elijah Challenge to excite its congregation I decide I had enough and decided to leave.

As it turned out, events unraveled and before I could formally inform the Board, other leaders were creating little tsunamis and things got hostile and the whole thing started to break down. I could not leave when it was in that state so we hung around. One positive thing out of that episode was I decided I needed to have formal training in a bible school – I’m still at BCV (MST) now.

Things have stabilised much better now and I think we have a normal healthy church with sound teaching and well intentioned leaders.

I am however, tired of being the one to raise issues. I have always envisaged a church board to be one which identifies issues, discusses them through on an open, robust and unreserved manner, so that everyone has a clear understanding and rationale for where the church is, where it wants to head, and what it needs to do. When for the most part people appear uninterested, non-engaging and greet matters raised with muted responses (at best) I am less inclined to raise issues. If that is to be the case, I might as well not be in the board.

I no longer want to be the one which raises issues, the one to ask uncomfortable questions and the one who sends long emails which people either don’t read, think they’re a nuisance or don’t respond to. They may react to these months later, without addressing the context and points raised (because they were raised long ago). Most importantly, I don’t want to be unhappy at home because of these issues.

New Horizons


We were away last weekend. Kiddo wanted to explore potential horizons and we obliged. It also meant she could clock up the requisite mileage as an L-plater.

We took off on Saturday morning, braving the downpour as I took us out of Melbourne. Once out somewhere on the Metropolitan Ring Road, kiddo took over and my role doubled. I was mentally still doing the driving but I was at the same time, keeping an eye on kiddo and making sure she was alert and focusing.

I stole the odd moment or so to break the monotony by taking pictures of the often beautiful country roadsides, especially when the rain abated.

LBJ came along for the ride and was very well behaved the entire time.

We got to our destination just after 5pm, checked into our pet friendly hotel, unpacked and then went out to a local Thai restaurant for dinner.

The next morning we went to a Uniting Church and relived liturgical service before visiting a market downtown and then proceeding to the CBD for Tress to visit the local Myer store. We then headed to Kiddo’s survey site and drove around a little bit before proceeding to a riverside for LBJ to do his business, enjoyed the clean crisped fresh air before looking for another restaurant for dinner. This time we found a Punjabi one and it was by far the best food we had in that town, all previous visits included. Happy, we went back to the hotel, watched the surprisingly good “Thor” starring Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins (liver licking good Hannibal) and Natalie Portman.

We left the next day just before 1pm, after Kiddo completed her survey and we pushed back to Melbourne, arriving just after 8.30pm. Kiddo was again at the wheel for the most part.

Kiddo at the wheel seems to be the overriding theme over the weekend, in so many sense of the word. She’ll soon be the driver and we will no longer take her where she wants to go.

Related articles

This was how it used to be


It’s November but it’s still single digit temperature in the morning and I’m still pulling on a jumper. Some old timers tell me this was the Melbourne they knew before. I spend a lot more time with old timers these days so I have had reasonable sampling sizes when I gauge how old timers feel.

Maybe that’s part of my current problems, few as they may be. In my office on a day like today when the population size increases by 33.3%, the average age is on the wrong side of 50’s. On days when there are just 3 this piece of statistic inches ever more to the wrong side and has a closer look-in on 60. I shudder to think what happens when we take into account the other occupants of this building. It wouldn’t do any harm to my sense that I spend a lot of time with old timers these days.  And they all tell me this was what the old Melbourne was like – cool Spring mornings, even in November.

It’s not just the cool mornings – it’s also the wet. It has been raining, in an almost English sense of the word i.e., the rain never truly stops but it doesn’t bucket down like a tropical torrential downpour either.

So November notwithstanding, summer-like conditions are still only a promise. A bit like the here-but-not-yet eschatological kingdom thingy.

I’ve been in this NFP role for 4 months now. My work is a mish-mash of activities. I go through all in-coming mail, check on rental, mortgage, farmstocks and loans programs on the revenue side and distributions and donations on the disbursements side as well as miscellaneous building and tenancy matters. I also have some legal stuff thrown in, although for the most part it was tax stuff and my contribution was muted at best. The Treasury came up with an “in-Australia” raft of amendments to the tax laws concerning charitable tax exempt status, to which organisations like us made annoyed (and worried) submissions. Then there was the new consumer credit licensing laws which we needed to look to, and which incidentally I had to front up to the Board  tonight to discuss a paper I put up recently. These legal stuff sort of made work a little bit more interesting but professional work satisfaction has long taken a remote back seat. I still get tickled into dipping my toes into possible legal work every now and then but it is still a remote back seat.

What my present work has done is to somehow, show up some sides of faith based organisations which tend to confirm some old prejudices. Maybe it is actually an Australian thing or maybe it is just the circle I have been moving in, but lately, I get this feeling that those who work in Christian organisations somehow are more relaxed and less intense in their day-to-day work activities. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we’re old just older and wiser and react less to day-to-day situations and take things more in stride. While this doesn’t explain the frequent absences and travels I notice it sort of show work is taken less seriously and people just want to spend more time on people – family especially – and activities they enjoy.

Maybe I’m getting to know a Melbourne that used to be, just like cool November mornings.

 

Related articles