Just another day

This was Wednesday, meant to be published Thursday, but today is Friday.  I intended writing a brief post about my day like Steve does, with an economy of words, but I failed. 

Hippie Niece's daughter needed a dental check at the Dental Hospital in Carlton. I met them for coffee and cake at a rather good cafe in Lygon Street, called Cyrus Artlounge. There is a gallery upstairs and the great niece has been there before and dragged me up a steep spiral stair case to see the tasteful nude female paintings. The cafe hosts 'life drawing' evenings. You know what life drawings is a code expression for. 

It was a nice catch up with Hippie Niece and her daughter, H, who with her twin sister and father have recently travelled to New Zealand for the two girls to meet their father's family. They had a wonderful time, and their father's mother, who is quite strict, loved the girls and spoilt them. H told me she didn't like the plane trip, had a headache and was sick. Just a bit sick?, I asked.  No, very sick. You didn't projectile vomit did you H? Yes, four times. I made a big mess.

Merlot, you may recall another projectile vomit situation at a theatre by another of my great nieces.

Hippie Niece had met the family in New Zealand when she was with her Maori partner. She recounted how his now late grandmother just stared at her with malevolent eyes as she ate a mango. Hippie Niece had been travelling in Europe and Britain just before she and her Kiwi partner got together, and she did think the twins might be red haired and Scottish looking. 

It was a nice catch up with them. On Sunday I've been invited to Ex Sis in Law's home to meet her husband's daughter's second child, a month or so old. He is a nice looking baby named Winston, and there is a joke going around that it is Wynston. I was warned when I was invited to not mention anything about Wynston with a y. The parents are over the joke.

It was a hot day, so I was happy to return home to the cool. Kosov! Attend me. Yes Andrewww. 

We will look in the crate in my wardrobe to see what is there and get rid of what I don't want to keep. I will help you Andrewww.  

Forty plus years of theatre programmes from all kinds of shows, some possibly valuable. The oldest I believe is from the 1980s when we saw Debbie Reynolds perform at The Palais. Some work paperwork, which I should have gone through. A stack of of public transport timetables, from the 1990s I think. Several maps. 

There was one single piece of paper with some Hungarian printed writing on one side and a handwritten address on the other. Cogs turned, gears engaged, and I remembered. When in Budapest (wow, 11 years ago) we met up with Jane and Lance Hattat and Lance wrote down the address of the rather good restaurant Spinoza in the Jewish quarter for us to catch a taxi to meet them later for dinner. We had a lovely evening, with the only  problem being the fun couldn't kick on as we had to be up early to be ready to board our Danube River cruise boat. Lance had offered to escort us to a gay bar where there was a special leather party night. Ray was so annoyed with me that I insisted on being responsible and returning to our accommodation and not go off to a gay bar. I think that was my beginning of me being an old man. 

In behind the crate was a gift from our friend Danny in Malaysia. He has a coffee sales and coffee machine business, as well as a barista training school and he gave us this 2002 Lavazza Coffee calendar. The were very popular to being hung in mechanics workshops and male building workers' lunch rooms. You get the idea. This calendar was never used and only opened once. I just checked and there is one the same on Ebay for about AU$180. I believe Lavazza collaborate with top photographers from around the world to produce the annual calendar. Duh, of course the calendar must be annual. 

Keeping in mind I had cleared this crate out a few years ago, ridding it of most travel brochures, tickets and all sorts of things associated with travel, we just put everything back in the crate. So as Swedish death cleaning, that was a bit of a fail. I expect in a couple more years I will again wonder what is in the crate, and repeat the process. 

There is a smaller crate that I need to check. It is marked 'Diaries and IT'. In the early days of IT, I wrote things down. I'll leave that for another day.

Holiday Memories

Gattina near Waterloo in Belgium recently posted about Mannekin Pis, the pissing boy statue in Brussels. It was most interesting but what else is Brussels known for, or Belgium if you like? Fine chocolate? Cigars? Cones of something to eat on a street (yes, I forget what). Hercule Poirot?

Less well known is the amazing Atomium. Photo from Wikipedia.

And Belgium is famous for crime solver Tin Tin with his dog, Snowy. This is what we saw when we exited Brussels Midi Station in 2014 as we sat in the cigarette butt carpeted seating area outside Brussels Midi. We were changing trains after travelling on the high speed Thalys train from Amsterdam to travel on Eurostar to London. Seeing peaking Tin Tin  and Snowy high above a building was surreal.

Eurostar, the operator of the high speed train between London and Paris via the Chunnel,  has taken over Thalys, along with expanding services to other European destinations. My god, a cursory check has indicated multiple owners and operators of the Chunnel and trains. It's very messy. 

I didn't see it coming

If you have nothing ready to post, just steal from someone else who has stolen from someone else. 

I don't think trains running on streets is so unusual in the US. It is rare here but we Victorians do have one country town where trains run down the main street. 

It seems Germany does too, an historic steam train, no less. It is quite a big beast and the excuse that 'I didn't see it coming', sounds flimsy. 'Sorry, I am an incredibly stupid person and a very poor driver', might be more appropriate. 

For some reason the video is quite dark. Here is a photo. 

And there have been others.

Austria v Australia

In Austria we came across keyrings and 'fridge magnets with the slogan no No Kangaroos in Austria. 

I think it is better now, especially as there is so little mail, but it wasn't unusual for our mail to arrive after being misdirected to Austria. It was probably the case that the same happened to Austrian bound mail, arriving via Australia. 

But with absolutely minimal geographic knowledge, surely people know they are two very different countries. 

It seems not. What an absolute idiot tosser tv presenter. Does anyone know who he is? Or her for that matter. Respect to her for calling him an effing idiot, which he clearly is. 

Train travel at speed

Over the last four years with a combination of newer, faster and more comfortable trains, along with better train tracks, technology and competition between companies, train travel in the UK and Europe has increased its share of medium to long distance travel. There will be great figures from many European countries but here are a few examples. I think they are figures of competition between flying and trains for fast and convenient comfortable travel.

London to Edinburgh trains, from 33% of market share up to 63%. That is substantial and has killed domestic airline flights, but it should be even better. 

Madrid to Barcelona, 12% of market share by trains up to 73%. The train is very fast.

Milan to Rome, 36% of market share to 80%. This too is a very fast train. 

Carefully controlled competition between train companies, often against a government owned rail operator has improved services no end. 

Four companies compete on the Madrid to Barcelona train route and they are very fast trains at a cost well below flying, making travelling between the two major cities a no brainer decision.    

The Italian designed and manufactured train running under the brand Iryo is the best looker and perhaps the best choice, depending on your needs. It's interior was designed by a famous Italian interior designer, so famous I can't recall his name, and it's beautiful and ultra comfortable. 

We in the Antipodes can only look on with envy and wonder why we can't have such a train company or four to choose on one of the world's busiest flight route, Melbourne and Sydney. The flight is longer than it once was as there can be lot of taxi time in Sydney and to allow for plane congestion in Sydney, but even so, at 80 minutes as against 11 hours by train, well, what can I say. There is no defence. 

The Italian train Frecciarossa 1000, running high speed, 300 km/h I think, between Madrid and Barcelona.

Clearly first class and I think there are four classes to choose from. 

Trentalia

Dear Trentalia.

I am sure your media monitors will pick this up. That is their reason for being. I was halfway through making a complaint before being stymied by the need for a ticket number and your site switching back to Italian. You are a government owned train operator and service a local long distance market and international services in conjunction with other government operators and private operators.

I watch a number of train travel YouTubers who focus on European rail travel and from what I have picked up, your trains and service are among the best in Europe. Your Frecciarossa trains are stunningly stylish, inside and out. Photo from Railway Technology.

I can scarcely believe that on your premium service from Paris to Milan in the very expensive Executive Class, you have covered over the windows with all over advertising. I live in Melbourne, Australia with the largest tram system in the world and I know first hand how awful all over advertising is, as so many of our trams are covered in AOA. It spoils the view through the widows in the daytime and makes it hard to see where you are. It is worse at night time and if it dark and wet, you may as well be in a windowless moving box. 

It is just unbelievable that the Italian population and people of influence have not strongly protested at your window cover ups. 

Beautiful, classy and comfortable trains travelling at 300 km/h, offering such a good service as part of high speed train services across Europe and killing air travel, yet you choose to spoil the passenger experience. 

To say I am disappointed is to understate what I feel. For any future European train travel, I will carefully check about all over advertising on trains I may book.

Andrew.

PS To readers, you may find the clip I am talking about interesting if that is your kind of thing.

Freedom to Freedom from

For all its faults, I think the US can be judged as the greatest country on our planet. In so many areas it leads the world. 

We outsiders love to take the country down a peg or two but we only do that to somewhere superior. Guns and health care really puzzle those outside the country, and why doesn't the US look to the country to the north where there is a kinder society.  Although we've only visited New York, thanks to bloggers and the internet I have a pretty good idea what the rest of the country is like.

However...

The subject line came to me from somewhere on the internet and I think a few words can be very salient. 

'From the US, The Freedom to...

From Europe, The Freedom from...'

Think about it.

Sexy Sporting Saturday

I did not know the rather delightful Stefano Tsitsipas has a brother here competing in the Australian Open. I'm sure Petros is a nice fella, but he doesn't quite have the appeal of his older brother. He looked nice enough with long hair but now, not so much.

We have a new hope for Australian tennis with a possible rising star one Alexei Popyrin.  Not too shabby at all. His press conference after a surprise win was a delight of emotion.

To note, as Andy Murray won against an Australian player (no, I won't name the player because as you know I would not resist misspelling his name) he is assuredly a Scottish tennis player, not a British or English player as he may have been if he lost. Don't worry Brits. We do the same with New Zealanders. But the match finishing at 4.05am! I would have jet lag for a week. It seems absurd but must be good for somewhere in the world to watch. A daytime match in England, it seems.

Meanwhile a great Australian athlete has been accused of taking performance enhancing drugs. Whether he did or didn't, once an sports person is named publicly it's gonna stick. Peter Bol is an athletic runner. Footage was shown of him and others running. 

I remarked to R how runners' knackers are certainly strapped down now. Funnily the story's reporter, Matt Shirvington, was also a running athlete back in the days when junk was not quite as contained.

Not quite as impressive, but nor was Finish runner Markus Poyhonen very contained. 

Perhaps I should have called this post Old Man Sleazy Saturday. I've never watched athletics and a few years ago I did watch a tennis match on tv.