Anthony Malloy Between Coffees

1) Our taxi driver.

A mate from work and I had a meeting in the city today so we caught a cab in. On the way back we had a chatty driver, which was cool, until her proved he was a really chatty driver. As we were cruising along Dandenong Rd the taxi was filled with music.

“Bugger” he said and then picked up his mobile phone and started talking on it. While driving. A professional driver. On the phone. Driving…

But not just once. Ten seconds after he hung up (can you hang up a mobile?) his wife called back and he picked it up and started talking again.

2) Us

We just watched a full episode of Home and Away.

It must be 18 years since I watched an episode of Home and Away but we sat and watched every second. One question - what happened to Alf?

I’ve taken a leaf from Daniel’s book and started Twittering. I’ve been looking at it for a while but have only just got around to setting up the account, integrating it with my Facebook and upgrading my blogging software so I could easily add it to my blog.

For those who don’t know Twitter is a web based piece of social software that allows you to let people know what you are doing and to keep track of what others are up to. Posts on Twitter are called tweets and are limited to 140 characters, similar in length to SMS messages. You can use it to let friends know where you are or what you are up doing (you can get messages on your phone via SMS, via IM or on the web) or use it as a micro-blog, which is how I intend to use it. Every now and then I’ll just write what I’m doing, what I’m thinking of or links to things I find interesting.

There’s an RSS feed to keep track of this mini-blog, or my username on Twitter is awmalloy if anyone wants to follow me. For those of you who don’t use RSS and still make the journey to my site each time you can see the last 3 tweets on the side bar.

Every now and then an accident can be a good thing. It looks like a truck coming out of a tight alley has sheered off the side of an awning to reveal an old sign of sorts.

This one is on Wattletree Rd but a couple of weeks ago I noticed the same company name on another awning that was being renovated. It seems that Dorman Long & Co. Must have been quite busy as Malvern grew.

Well, six weeks of election over. I had rolling headaches all Friday/Saturday, ebbing and flowing so sometimes I was out taking photos of sky writing and sometimes I was curled up under the doona cursing the sun for being so bright.

By a coincidence the headaches seemed to disappear around the time it became clear Kevin Rudd was going to be our next PM. Such dignified speeches from both he and Howard. I was impressed by Rudd’s speech (currently on the front page Kevin 07), a real call to arms for the country to make a change, make a difference. I truly hope he succeeds.

I woke up this morning without a pounding behind my eyes, which was great but meant I couldn’t put it off any longer. Saturday there were mower sounds coming from all over the neighbourhood and this morning next door started as I was hanging out the washing. There’s only so much peer pressure one can take, even at 37. Out came the mower and our yards no longer look like a tropical jungle. Throw in a visit from Rob, a family outing and steak and chips for dinner and today looks pretty good.

Someone really wants Kevin to win today.

I was curious how much this would cost so I did a little Googling. Apparently someone has round about $3800 to spend to get their message across to all of Melbourne.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the election this weekend. Indeed it’s been hard not to with advertisements wallpapering every ad break. Even for someone who really doesn’t watch that much television they have seemed inescapable. I wonder how they will influence my choice?

On one side you have the new boys, offering a fresh take. It seems more sideshow than politics and is a blatant populist plug. One of their rivals has taken notice and done a bit of ‘me tooing’ with ads that make them both look remarkably similar. It’s all flash, dash and no talk of content.

On the other hand there’s my preference. Old, some would say even staid, and seemingly comfortable in keeping with all that I’ve admired about them in the past. No groovy multimedia extravaganzas for them, just runs on the board and two strong incumbents comfortable in the knowledge that they can always depend upon we true supporters returning.

So, yes, I will be spurning the new approach of 7 and 9 and will be watching the ABC coverage on election night. Kerry and Antony get my vote every time.

One of the pleasures of watching television filmed in your city is looking at the background and trying to figure out where scenes were shot. “Hang on, that’s….” or “Oh! I know that….”

We were watching this week’s episode of the Melbourne based City Homicide when they stuck up a map of the murder scene on the evidence wall.

“Hang on…that’s our neighbourhood!” It was mapped out, street names and all. A little later Wolfe’s wife made a phone call from just outside an abandoned fish and chip shop we walk by all the time, which was all good and well,  but then what came next was a bit of a shock.

Apparently this week’s victim was bludgeoned to near death in front of the ice cream selection in our local milk bar. It’s going to be hard not to think of this as I lean over to get my next Bubble-O-Bill.

Two great discoveries yesterday, one of which has been one of my holy grails for almost two decades.

First up a comment on Andrew’s blog sent me in the direction of Fading Victoria where Rowan Crowe is documenting historical sites in danger of disappearing as Melbourne expands. I have a fascination with old signs so finding a site like this is just wonderful. I can’t wait to see what else Rowan comes up with, and I need to go and take photos of the signs he’s pointed out to me.

The second find is just amazing. For years I’ve wanted to track down a copy of the ABC’s station close from the late 1980s. I have great memories of staying up just that little bit longer to catch the close and can remember being incredibly disappointed when the ABC went 24 hours. I honestly thought I would never see it again until a chance discovery on a comment on YouTube lead me to Frankster - an amazingly helpful man who not only had a copy of the exact close I was after, he went to the trouble of uploading it for me. Anybody else out there remember with fondness how the ABC closed down for the night in 1988? Having watched it again I’d love to find out what the music is, any guesses?

Frankster, I can’t thank you enough. You’ve made this ’80s boy a very happy man.

It’s on Facebook, so now it’s really official.