Thread: Oh, please...

Originally Posted by Tins

Whichever one, I reckon Des' auntie was directionally challenged, because neither would be on that route. Course, the roads could have changed a bit since those days. Horses used to go their own way.


Old Melbourne is over the road from the old Russell Street cop shop, where D24 used to be. And yes, Ned was hanged there.

That right? Today I am sure the roads have changed in 75 years. We did pass Pentridge no mistake. Russell St .Big Radio Tower on top down the road from Pharlap. Aunt Joan & Unc Doug knew where they were. Had a little MG which had a very small luggage compartment. They drove me down to Cobden with me crammed in the back & at one time reaching 100MPH WOW!

Originally Posted by 4bee

reaching 100MPH WOW!

Sure you're not thinking of Phar Lap again?

Used to do a major fish survey in western Vic around the end of Feb, did it maybe 5 or 6 times.

It did get hot sometimes............. 40......42ish.

We learnt really fast not to have the air con on in the car going from site to site, doing the gear and recording, from 6am till we'd finished for the day around 7pm. You're body just gets used to the ambient as the day warms up.

Early in the piece if the air was on and we arrived somewhere to set / retrieve gear it was like getting hit with the contents of an oven when the car door was opened and your body couldn't adjust.

These days a lot of the clients (CMA's ,etc) have a knock off @39c mandated in inductions, based on risk assessment.

Air con off if I'm doing the job. DL

Originally Posted by scarry

Sounds worse than being in the Series 1,we travelled all over the countryside,three kids in the back,the youngest which was not me,always had the front middle seat.Often the wooden trailer in tow.
We sat amongst all the gear ona pillow,yes tha same one we used when we slept at night in our camp beds.
Had a huge canvas tent with center pole,pretty common in the day,with wooden poles.

Anyway,no complaints,or we got a good clip around the ear….

Strangely enough I still have the ridgepole of that army tent. About twelve feet long, nearly three inches in diameter, and made of hardwood, with a steel sleeve at each end with two holes for spikes on the end of the uprights. I think we sat on the tent, perhaps with a mattress under it, with the tent fly covering the rest of the load, and able to be pulled over us if it rained or the sun got too hot.

One year one of our older cousins made us a propeller on a stick that he nailed to the back of the (wood) cab sticking up in the breeze.

On another occasion we complained loudly enough about hunger that Dad stopped and got a loaf of fresh bread and gave it to us. The three of us pulled it in two and ate the fresh bread by the handful, followed by the crust. (The only "fast food" that existed then was fish and chips or pies and sausage rolls, and the family could rarely afford these - it was just after the war and we were still in austerity mode.)

Originally Posted by Tins

Sure you're not thinking of Phar Lap again?

He was quick but not that quick.

Originally Posted by 4bee

He was quick but not that quick.

I wouldn't remember..

Originally Posted by scarry

They are less smarter here.
They put out tenders for the cool school project just before summer promising to would all be completed by the time the Christmas school holidays had finished.
What AC company is not absolutely flat out at that time of the year,and has staff on holidays,yet alone the availability of thousands of new AC units.

Eventually the units went in over the next year or so but someone forgot most schools didn’t have enough power.
So the power authority had to put in numerous new substations and many schools had huge electrical upgrades.
That didn’t happen overnight,and many schools were left with classrooms that had the fans removed and AC units not operational due to not enough power for them.
So when summer arrived,that situation became a political football,as the schools were in a worse situation than they were before all this started.

And the contractors that installed the AC units wanted to be paid even though the units could not be run.
So then at huge cost the Govt had to hire generators to test run all the AC units,or pay contractors to modify existing circuits temporarily to run each unit to test and commission them,so the contractor could be paid.

Many of the AC units were out of warranty before they were eventually powered up and could be operated by the school staff.

Then there was a huge argument as the schools complained their budget would not be big enough to cover all the repairs yet alone the maintenance of hundreds of AC units.

All fun and games,and one expensive cock up.

I bet the person who stuffed it all up kept his/her job on full pay & eventually got a big fat Bonus for being so "thorough" . Not only tha,t but trained up a junior wannabee to take over one day when Engineer #1 retired. And so it gets repeated down the years, a bit like Council Employees who learn incompetence from the old lags, so follow suit.

Who said History doesn't repeat itself?

Originally Posted by 4bee

I bet the person who stuffed it all up kept his/her job on full pay & eventually got a big fat Bonus for being so "thorough" . Not only tha,t but trained up a junior wannabee to take over one day when Engineer #1 retired. And so it gets repeated down the years, a bit like Council Employees who learn incompetence from the old lags, so follow suit.

Who said History doesn't repeat itself?

I recall that, during the Global Financial Crisis ( remember that one? ), part of the "plan" called on building stuff to stimulate the economy. We got "pink batts"; in the belfry, presumably. We got "tuck shops" that couldn't tuck. And, in one notable example, a footy club wound up with more full storage hot water systems in the shower block than they had actual players. High fives and promotions all round, chaps. Err, can I still say 'chaps'?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.