City shock has now hit home since returning to Melbourne - this time as a car driver. Heading outbound at 3pm on the Monash it is bumper to bumper with the pace at a gruelling crawl. The daily commute consists of torturous agony for several kilometres along a four lane highway. Who’s to blame? Road works, freight trucks and Melbourne’s relentless reliance on the wheeled machine.
For the last couple of years I have been living in the smaller cities of Australia. Primarily Darwin, Albury, Adelaide and Townsville. To explain my position I will explain what is typical involved as a regional driver.
Country-bumpkin: The week day begins with a quick breakfast with Koshie, and you hop into your car to start work. Your side street is empty and you pull out. Turn the corner and you’re on a main road. Four minutes later you pull into work. Park, enter work and avoid your boss to carry on with your packed mornos. Motivated and proactive you start work.
Country-bumpkin turn Melbournite: The week day begins with a quick breakfast with Koshie, and you hop into your car to start work. You wait for the opposite neighbour to pull out then follow suit. Three lights left and you’ll be on the highway into town. First light turns green as you approach smooth sailing. Second light a solid red and you sit 11 cars back. Your left turn lane blocked by 15 cars backed up - no compassion.
Country-bumpkin turn Melbournite cont’d: 18 minutes after departure your finally on the cruising on the Monash. At 100km/hr you cruise with roads busy but traffic flowing. Red brake lights come out of nowhere. To a rocking halt you see into the distance backed up traffic and await your 1.5 hour commuter doom. Welcome to the daily grind.
What happens when you neglect calling ‘that’ number on the highway signage for a month?
Debt accumulation totalling $56.20, thanks CityLink! Alas, no-one else to blame but my own complacency.
Country-bumpkin on a busy Preston tramway: Priceless
Related Articles: 30 Minutes Over… $55 Thanks Melbourne Parking Inspectors
Pop the champagne (sparkling) and let the celebrations begin! The 15th-Nov-07 marks the first post of this blog!
As you can tell time does change a blog. What have I learn since those good ol’ days? A time for reflection.
- Wordpress is the superior blog platform with Blogspot themes boring and platform lacking support
- Get web hosting for total control - pay for it using monetization.
- Mission Statement: ‘Yacht Blog’ - hmmm… I couldn’t generate that topic content so I diversified. Check out Why No Niche? Random Blogging Explained
- If you want readers then write good content. As it stands my greatest article of all time is Adventure into the Volcano
- Blogging as a hobby takes creativity, time, discipline and an understanding loving partner! :p
- Most of all - Blogging is fun! I vent frustration, observations, achievements, superiority… I blog therefore I am!
A super huge thank you goes out to all! Cheers 
- Author: johnnymestizo
- Filed under: Australiana
- Date: Feb 15,2008
Main disadvantage of Jetstar?
WAITING 4 HOURS FOR MY FLIGHT TO ARRIVE (JQ919 - Townsville to Melbourne - 8th-Feb-08)
4 hours of patiently sitting on my tush with my complimentary $8 snack and coffee voucher at the airport kiosk. What rubs me the wrong way is the complete failure to mention the magical ‘S’ word from the Jetstar counter attendant. Snap! Read the rest of this entry »
There is talk that this beast may come in to replace the old Holden Crewman.
The Holden Crewman came out as a 4-door alternative to the existing holden ute. Then it got dumped because of it being too long and tight on passenger leg room. Pissed off and back with avengence the GMC brainiacs put the Denali XT on display early Feb ‘08 at the Chicago Auto Show. The great thing is that it’s Australian made and imported for sale over to the states. Read the rest of this entry »
Setting off in a Jeep across sandy lahar plains I find myself wondering, ‘What is it like inside a Volcano?’ For 17 years since Mount Pinatubo’s earth shaking eruption few people have ventured. The people of the Philippines have lived through this aftermath and now as the volcano is well and truly settled guided tours will take you into the heart of a volcano. Read the rest of this entry »
After checking my network settings for the eightieth time this month I have concluded that there must be a fault of the Google servers. My Internet connection is through Internode and my browser is Mozilla Firefox (IE would not work either!)
The Domino Effect:
- google.com
- google.com.au
- google.com/adsense
- google.com/analytics
- gmail.com
One down all down. Is this ‘Net Death‘…
Neo Unjacked 
Now I sit with my insatiable thirst for knowledge and seemingly no way to obtain it. I question the IT world and all its personnel. My online world inaccessible. No emails. No searching through mountains of text with results in a mere second. No checking analytics to gauge my presence in the blogosphere. My heart has stopped, my mind is num, my fingers feebly rest upon the keyboard.
Let there be others!
I am not alone - other testimonials include PitchMy Dec 07 and Gmail down Jan 08. Historical account - Google Admits to Server Crisis May 06 (Could it happen again?)
Could Google in all it’s US$125+ billion wisdom let technical issues result in it’s downfall? Time will tell but I doubt it.
I am looking for updated info from other netizens to contribute to my disgruntled ramblings. You must comment if you have been Googlestomped this month OR if all is fine in your net world - Do tell !!!
