Cablog

Lazy shots

1) One hot Lamborghini...the back-half here.

2) Full moon over the New South Wales Art Gallery and some bloke on a horse.

3) Plus another bloke delivering trays of pastries to Fairfax.

4) The old FJ, or an FX rear as an inner-city portico. Note the plants.

Click images to enlarge...

The Big Lap

Each Saturday night at work I listen to The Idlers on ABC radio. It's a spin-off program from the Coodabeen Champions, broadcast on Sunday nights. Amongst other travelling segments, The Idlers reports on people doing the Big Lap, or tour around Australia. Of late they have interviewed some really interesting venturers, such as...

• Rob Gray who with his wife is slowly travelling around  Australia in a 6WD ACCO ex-army truck, converted to a motorhome.
• Jonathan Green, a Melbourne journalist took his family around Australia in 80 days, via a Landrover Discovery and pop-up trailer. Using a phone and laptop he posted a daily diary to a newspaper column which has now become a book.
• Llyod Scott an Englishman who is currently travelling coast to coast from Perth to Sydney - on a penny farthing bicycle ! Believe it or not.
• Dirk Gion who has been sighted by tourists and truckies for some weeks now, but not interviewed. Dirk, a German, has just crossed Australian on a kite-driven skateboard. Go figure.

I'm sure there are plenty more thrill seekers out there, and I may just do it myself one day. In a cab - in reverse !

Alice in Cabbieland

Alice spent all week dreaming of wearing her red high-heels last night down the yellow brick road. Well, Oxford Street actually. She was so chuffed with them she posed for this (lousy) photo. The shoes were purchased for the bargain price of $129. Originally in a baby pink, she painted them fire-engine red. They are branded, Go Steady with Fiancee - ''Fiancee' has the accent over the first 'e'', she insisted. I'm not sure of the significance of this but it is noted for the record. Anyway, I dropped Alice and her friends off at an Oxford Street nightclub. I trust the shoes did the job. Hope she got lucky.

Old media bitches...

Mainstream media (MSM) is bitching about bloggers. Good. Over at Tim Blairs, bloggers and his readers alike are having a field day at MSM's expense. They've gotten away with too much for too long.

Friday night chicks

As is my wont, I’ve just spent Friday night on the couch. My one and only night off these days. As such it’s devoted to watching ABC TV, starting with the 7pm News. Straight off it hit a high note with news of Labor’s blood-letting over the leadership issue. For a party which offered itself as the compassionate alternative last election, they certainly don’t practice what they preach. How sweet it all is...

Cab reform

I was going to do an in-depth analysis of Transport Minister, Michael Costa's decision to adopt the recommendations of the Cook report into taxi reform. But honestly, it bores me to tears. Sorry. I just go to work as a small business and work as hard as possible, then go home. Period. Otherwise, the politics of cabs shit me. Maybe I'll try later...

Sure, there are regulatory obstacles, but Costa seems to be focused on removing these. Good luck to him. Needless to say there are forces and vested interests in the cab industry which are beyond my comprehension. For the latest changes, not necessarily new, go here. And don't slam the bloody door !

It's a party

Well, that was a night I’m sure glad to see the end of. Sydney jumped last night and didn’t stop till well after midnight. Two huge parties were held, one public and the other private, combined with visiting US sailors, Thursday night shopping and end of month salaries.

All this presided over by a full moon, made for a 6 hour peak-hour extending to well after 9pm. Plus some pre-midnight roadworks on the Harbour Bridge just to make sure of the traffic chaos. Idiots, why don’t they start work after midnight. Surely they could have seen it coming. Even the cops got in on the action at the end of the night, with lively highway patrols around arterial roads.

The public party was held at Martin Place with the annual lighting of the giant Christmas Tree. This plus a concert, saw hordes of families converge on the City centre around 6 pm for three hours. The private party was held by Citigroup, a global financial services company, for 1800 guests at Darling Harbour. A veritable million dollar party, which I later avoided like the plague...

Ho bloody Ho

With the onset of Christmas and the silly season, the pace has certainly quickened around town. Plus the drinking and the aggro. Due to endless shifts, my patience was sorely tested last night.

Right from the off, within a kilometre of base, an arsehole in a light truck decided to cut me off from traffic lights. Having a vehicle of twice the power I easily held my position and refused to be intimidated. This led to much horn-blowing, yelling and tailgating which I duly ignored. Fook him...

Buggered

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Idolmania

After an 11 hour Sunday night-shift, with 60 hours left this week, I should be off to bed. But I’ll give you a brief cab report on the Australian Idol 2 finale, held last night at the Opera House. Only because I carried the winner in the cab recently. But first...

The City was almost a ghost town early evening, particularly during the three hour broadcast. The suburbs especially so. For all the trendy bad-mouthing of Idol around town, almost everyone stayed home to watch, it seemed.

In the cab Casey, the 16 year old winner (image here), was the popular choice by far. And it would appear she was a worthy winner. Congratulations and good luck to her...