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April, 2008:

Flinders Street Station

Flinders Str Station

(Click for larger version)

Flinders Street Station is a Melbourne landmark, and the hub of Melbourne’s suburban rail network.  “Under the clocks at Flinders Street” is a common meeting place for Melburnians and strangers alike.  With the main entrance to the station being on two of the city’s busiest streets (Swanston & Flinders Streets) it makes the perfect meeting place.

Flinders Street Station was built between 1905 and 1910.  In 2007 the public face of the station was restored to it’s previous glory.

TurtleCamper

TurtleCamper Toy at strangeco.com

My first impression was that this was some strange StarWars cross-over, but it is even better than that.  This toy at strangeco.com [^] brings new meaning to the term “Grey Nomads”.   Grey Nomads [^] are normally people who are 50+ and travelling around Australia, usually with a campervan or caravan.

Strangeco website describes this toy as:

A new limited edition vinyl figure from Jeremy Fish, the Turtle Camper lives inside it’s head and travels the world at a slow and steady pace.

In other words the perfect Grey Nomad – it plods along and holds up traffic!  The CannibalRabbit will continue to his bit in bringing more strange and twisted toys to light.

ANZAC Day

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day.  25th April 1915, was the date of the first landings on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey during the First World War.  ANZAC Day takes it name from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp.  This is the day when Australians and New Zealanders everywhere recognise those who have made a sacrifice for their countries. 

The landing were made by British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, Indian and South African troops.  Although the landing were not a success the RSL website [^] notes that the Gallipoli campaign “… gave to Australia a new pride. The Army had not failed. It had faced the horrors of modern war – the pain, the discomfort and the fear – with courage, determination and above all, good humour.” 

The ANZAC Day Public Holiday will see many Australians, young and old, at Dawn Services across the country.  This is now a proud celebration of the nation, in stark contrast with the event that looked as though it would die out with the passing of our WW1 survivors in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  With one WW1 veteran left in Australia and many WW2 survivor now in their 80’s ANZAC Day is growing in popularity, “Lest We Forget”.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon’s “For the Fallen”

$10 ANZAC 08

* CannibalRabbit supports ANZAC Day, Legacy, and Remembrance Day.

Death by PowerPoint

PowerPoint

Many people have died in meetings; well maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one!  But the amount of serious assaults committed in meetings with blunt objects, namely PowerPoint presentations is unbelievable, and it continues to happen day after day.  There are not too many people in the world that haven’t been exposed to this.  Any Manager that needs to address the masses will immediately resort to PowerPoint.

There is good news, Alexei Kapterev of realtimestrategy.ru [^], a Russian trainer and presentation expert, has posted a PowerPoint presentation “Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it)” [^].  It contains simple, easily implemented hints and things to avoid. 

The presentation emphasises the need for “Significance, Structure, Simplicity, and Rehearsal”.  These points are expanded on and explained, and along the way illustrated.  Anyone who uses presentation software should be made to go through this slide pack before they are allowed back into a meeting room!

Rose Bay – Sydney Seaplanes

Rose Bay Seaplane
de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver – VH-AQU – Sydney Seaplanes

I have had this as the title image for this site for a while now.  I thought that it was time for an explanation.  Rose Bay is the site of Australia’s first international airport – a seaport.  When we went out on a Harbour cruise to see the passing of the Two Queens on Sydney Harbour we managed to get down to Rose Bay, in Sydney’s Inner-Eastern suburbs.  While we were there we saw a couple of Sydney Seaplane’s flying boats come in to land.

In 1938 Qantas Empire Airways launched it’s luxurious flying boat service to England from Rose Bay.  The 15 passengers onboard paid a little more than the average annual wage of the time for the privilege of a ten day flight rather than a six week voyage.  The flight took ten days and had 31 stops.  As would be expected with the price they had paid the guests were pampered all the way with meals being served on china and there was enough room on-board to play quoits, and the nights were spent in top hotels on land. 

Today Qantas is gone from Rose Bay, but there is a regular flying boat service to Palm Beach, Gosford and Newcastle, as well as Sydney joyflights (Sydney Seaplanes [^]).  On the tourist-busy weekend that Sydney was experiencing with the two Queens in town, it seemed as though Rose Bay was busier than Sydney’s “real” airport at Mascot.  Even with this steady flow it was still hard to get a good photo.  This one had the bonus of having the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in the background, making this unmistakable photo of Sydney.

Sources: Sydney Seaplanes [^], abc.net.au [^], Airways Museum [^], Afloat Magazine [^], Qantas [^].