Some Google Reviews

Lately, I've been writing some Google Reviews.  So I'm gonna post some here as well.

They make me laugh and that's the main thing. 

Racecourse Hotel, Caulfield East

Changed a bit. I spent a good portion of my youth in this pub. The public has has gone. There used to be a great beer garden out the back, where you could sit and hear the trams go past. Now it's a gaming room. Probably not a bad thing that it's totally been renovated. Takes away the memories of the night I tried to pick the bar manager. And I was going well. Until Demolition Bob, started a fight with the other demolition contractor and it was all in. Blokes throwing punches and tables with beers being upended all over the place. As a coward, stayed on the side lines. I watched and kept drinking. When I saw the way the bar manager pick up 150+kg plus Demolition Bob and moved him out of the fight, I decided she was far too scary for me. I thought that in a moment of passion she would snap me like a twig. Anyways, it's nice that it's back after being closed for while. All good. The front toilets are a bit hard to find, but otherwise OK.

I Love Pho, Richmond

Was a good feed. Place is busy and had no air conditioning when I was there in late December. I reckon it was about 52 degrees in the place. Hot AF. The soup was OK. Tucked up between the kitchen and the dunnies is never flash. There's some turtle there called Reg, or Peter or something like that. He's not for sale or on the menu. Cheap enough. But I kind of got the feeling they cater for the Australian market more than the Vietnamese. It's ok.

Chemist Warehouse, Altona North

A chemist where you get drugs from. Why, oh why, do they change where the condoms are every week? It's embarrassing asking the young ladies who work there where they are. I'm sure they don't care. There's some SMS system now for scripts, but I sit and watch the view. It's most entertaining. Does anyone buy the sunglasses out the front? Looks a bit average now that the Autobarn and Medical Centre has closed down. You can still get a 12 inch at Subway next door. There are too many boxes on the ground that haven't been unpacked or partially done. Please fix this. Thanks.


Healesville Sanctury, Healesville

Lots of animals in an zoo. Some people want animals in cages, not me. I like to see them as free as possible while behind fenced and in tightly confined spaces. It can be dusty here, when everyone is around. Never a problem with car parking, but I can imagine it would get busy. We had the Koala experience. You can't touch the koala, just stand near him. I didn't get weed on, scratched or catch Chlamydia from being near him. The American chap who was doing the experience with us was most impressed that I had actually eaten a koala. Not when it was alive, that would be wrong. There's also a good brewery on the way back.

Coles Supermarket, Hawthorn

What can you say, it's a supermarket. As a man, I would like a Man aisle, that has everything I need in one place. Start with vodka and end with condoms. There would be plenty of space for cereal and Vegemite as well as other man needs, like tissues for us to cry into when our ladies leave us because we have all the emotional intelligence of a bag of frozen peas.

Gellibrand Scene Set

Gellibrand scene set

Gellibrand is the safest ALP seat in Australia, if another party wants to win it, they would need a swing of about 24 per cent to do so. 

Gellibrand covers mostly the inner west of Melbourne as well as some suburbs to the northwest.  The electorate is quite mixed with new homeowners attracted by price and the proximity to the CBD who have been priced out of other areas, first, second and third generation migrants and a mix of light and heavy industrial areas, such as the Toyota car manufacturing plant.

The AEC indicates that those suburbs include:  Altona, Altona Meadows, Altona North, Braybrook, Brooklyn (part), Footscray, Footscray West, Kingsville, Maidstone, Maribyrnong (part), Newport, Seabrook, Seaholme, South Kingsville, Spotswood, Tottenham, Yarraville and Williamstown. 

The parts of Brooklyn and Maribyrnong that aren't part of Gellibrand are actually part of the federal seat of Maribyrnong, which is held by Bill Shorten.  Next to Maribyrnong and Gellibrand is Gorton, also requiring a swing of over 20 per cent to change hands.  The electorate to the west is Lalor, to the east is Melbourne Ports (ALP) and Melbourne (Greens). 

The seat is named after Joseph Tice Gellibrand (1786–1837) who was the first Attorney General of Tasmania (in 1826, then Van Diemen's Land).  After some issues locally, he decided to explore the land to the north, and was eventually to die on an expedition up the Barwon River in 1837.

Many people would argue that safe seats are not that interesting.  But because the seats can be sown up by one party or another, it gives the other players a chance to get information out in local papers and on social media.  Local papers love having views of other candidates as it shows balance.  Although, often the most interesting parts of safe seats are the goings on within the party organisations.  There was a spat in Gellibrand over the insertion of Tim Watts for the ALP, who didn't live in the seat, and was a former staffer to right wing ALP power broker, Senator Steven Conroy (a Williamstown resident). 

I've lived in safe seats most of my voting life.  And I was an ALP member back in the mid 90s, in the safe Liberal seat of Higgins.  In Higgins, we were more interested in securing votes for our internal ALP grouping than just about anything else.  Some of our group went onto become Victorian Ministers, State Secretaries, the Chief of Staff to Prime Minister and many are still in advisor roles now with the State opposition.  Internal ALP fighting was often nasty, involved large groups of people who joined the party to vote for us, some of these were friends and family.  I haven't been a member of the ALP for over a decade now, but would still describe myself as left, but not hard left.  At one time, I was even a paid up member of Labor Unity!

Eventually, I moved to another electorate and was tired of the internal goings on, which can take a good amount of time and effort if you decide to get involved.  I wasn't keen on taking part any further, so didn't re-join.  The exact year would be around 1997 or 1998.  As I was only a member for at most five years, I've been a non-member longer than I have been a member.

So there you have it, an ex ALP member reporting on the safest ALP seat in Australia.  So far, I have already got my self blocked by one candidate after putting him under some scrutiny, so anything is possible.  Don't let anyone tell you that campaigns in safe seats can't be fun!

A major issue in the electorate is trucks.  Around 20,000 truck movements occur through this electorate a day, and all parties have ideas on how to do this.  Some believe in more public transport, others tunnels.  The previous ALP state government had a proposal for a East/West Link, which would have taken trucks from the Docks, through to the Western Ring Road. This proposal would have included off ramps for trucks to get to the many 'container farms' that are prevalent in parts of this electorate.  The Coalition government here in Victoria has recently committed to part of this, although it is the eastern part, which includes a tunnel from the eastern suburbs to a major toll road. 

In reality, this link will do very little for those in the West, and most of the complainers about the proposed western part were from those who didn't live here.  The Western Link was something I support and continue to do so, even though a major part of it would be within easy walking distance to my home.

Public transport is always a hot issue in Gellibrand and a way of easing this is the Metro Rail Tunnel which both ALP federally and state have said they will back, so too do the Greens.  This tunnel is to run from South Kensington station into the CBD and then along St Kilda Road, providing a cross-city option.  Part of the original proposal was to extend the tunnel further to South Yarra station, but this has little commitment at this stage.  Workers along St Kilda Road have to put up with very busy trams in peak times, and a tunnel would ease this congestion. 

Another issue locally is childcare.  There are a number of Council run facilities, but these often have long waiting lists.  It is an area I am keen to hear more from the candidates about, as we were offered one day a week for our daughter when she was three and a half years old at a Council facility.  This didn't suit us, as we had found private childcare.  Private childcare is increasing in costs, and can be as difficult to get into as Council facilities where there is high demand.

So far there have been confirmed candidates from the ALP and Greens, with the Liberal Party (LP) nominating David McConnell, who also ran in 2010, an Independent in John Green, Dwayne Singleton standing for Palmer United Party (PUP), Allan Cashion from the Australian Sex Party (ASP) and Anthony O'Neill Australian Christians Party (ACP).  There is always the possibility of more nominating as well, but these are those known at this time.

On a two party preferred basis in 2010, the ALP and the LP duked it out, with ALP getting 73.90 per cent of the vote with the LP 26.10.  It will be interesting to see which minor parties will increase their numbers.  In 2010 it was really a fight between the ALP, LP and Greens who gathered over 97 per cent of the primary votes.  

The Greens will be hoping to increase their primary vote, and I would suspect be aiming to get as many votes locally as the LP.  They probably believe they can win outright, but it would be a big ask in a seat where they haven't had wide support across the whole seat.  

No doubt the ALP will be hoping to better the previous election where they polled 59 per cent.  Interestingly, the Greens polled well at the 2010 state election in the seat of Footscray, and the number one Greens Senate candidate is a Footscray and Gellibrand local, (and ex Mayor of Maribyrnong) Janet Rice.  The Greens candidate has been campaigning with Mr Rice so having a friendly and locally known face will always help.

Greens are already running a strong social media campaign, and so is the ALP.  The other parties are yet to start fully their campaigns, but would want to start soon.

I have decided to every week tweet the number of followers/likes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to give an indication of who has the most.  A winner will also be declared.  Last week it was the ALP, with Greens winning Google+.

The ALP will win this seat.  But it gets interesting in the details.  Who will get second, Greens or the LP?  Where will the preferences go?  Will the Greens be able to keep their momentum going for the whole campaign?  Can they spread their vote further into the electorate?  When are the billboards going to arrive?  When is Clive coming back to Williamstown?

I hope to interview as many of the candidates as I can with a short survey of the same questions, keeping them to word limits to avoid waffle.  If Gellibrand has a 'meet the candidates' I'll attend that as well, and will generally report back on the seat and how the campaigns are going. 

You can follow me on Twitter @Dusty_1. It is not always political what I tweet, so you have been warned.  

The view at the mouth of the Yarra River including Westgate Bridge and docks which are part of Gellibrand.

Williamstown Beach, very popular in summer months.

The new Landing Helicopter Dock HMAS Canberra being fitted out at BAE Systems in Williamstown.

The beach at Altona, including the pier. A popular place for fishing and swimming.

Many chemical plants along this stretch of road which have legacy issues on the environment. Housing is encroaching on these areas.

Less than 20 kilometres from the CBD, and the only rail option is a country service, as this is a non-electrified service. 

Google Glass

Most know I am a bit of a geek. 

I also am pretty heavily invested in the Google world, I use GDrive, Android phone, and Gmail.  If I could get one, I'd probably use a Chrome Book as well.

Google are about to release Glass.  I have mixed feelings about this. It seems like a good way to get directions and maybe some notifications, but shit, I'd want to get away from this.  With a phone you can turn that off or simply not look at it.  But with a thing over your eye, it's kind of an obligation to look at it.

I can see the benefit of using it to get instructions while driving, but with distractions all around with phones, email, texts, you'd have to turn all this shit off.  I can also understand using it on a bike, powered or pedal.  It would be a great way to get the navigation directions without potentially, taking your eyes off the road. 

What gets me, is that unless they release a means of having the ability to attach to prescription glasses, they can fuck off.  I wear glasses, and if they want me to wear these, they would have to offer it as an easily removable arm for when I want to use Glass. No doubt Google are doing some deal with some glasses manufacturer to do this, but it would have to come in at a good price, decent frames and easily removable.  I have normal glasses, plus prescription sunglasses for the car.  In order for me to use Glass, the manufacturer would have to make it easy to swap and to store the actual device.

Would I want to walk around with a bit of clear plastic hanging off my glasses?  People who don't wear glasses probably wouldn't mind, especially if they are hipsters riding fixedies with beards and tight pants.  Me, unless it is easily added and removed, forget about it. 

Time will tell, but Google, that's your challenge.

Julia Gillard/AWU - My take

As above, this is my take on this whole issue.  So if you don't agree, get your own Blog.

Anyways, there has been a lot of talk about the PM and the AWU and I think the Coalition and others are focusing on this issue for a number of reasons.

They don't have a plan except to attack the government. 
Sure, the hung Parliament pushed up some interesting times, but it has also got a good amount of legislation through.  And they had a plan to try to bring the Govt down through legislative disruption, but when they didn't get the support of the Independents and after Peter Slipper votes now with the Govt (that's all gone quiet hasn't it?) they couldn't disrupt the Govt, so have now changed to focus on the PM. Interestingly, they haven't focused on Oakshott or Windsor and attacked them on 'integrity' grounds, but are happy to do it the PM and Slipper.
By doing this, the Coalition want to paint the ALP as being a party of miscreants and incapable of leading because of their lack of integrity. The political expediency that is needed in the adversary style of politics means that every party has to make deals in order to get stuff done. This also means getting into deals with people you wouldn't normally cross the road to see except to slap a writ on them. This is the nature of the parliament we have now.  Coupled with this is also the Coalition painting the Greens as nutbags to further alienate them from the voters - it's working, but I think this is a lot to do with some decisions the Greens have made themselves.

She's a woman.
Undoubtedly this is the biggest issue for a lot of people. I heard the Greens Leader, Christine Milne, on the radio today saying that women are here and can do the job (or similar).  I have no issue with the PM being a woman, so to me I've already accepted this.  I can honestly say, that in my working career, I've had more hopeless male bosses than I have women bosses.
There are always going to be a number of men who simply don't like women in powerful positions.  I think that this little gem has been underplayed.  A lot of men want to be in charge and simply don't trust women.  Who knows, they might have had an issue with a lady and never forgiven her.  Frankly I don't care, but chances are there will be a number of women out there that these men need to apologise to for their past actions. Gillard's misogyny speech was perfect and a great rebuff of Abbott who has (not surprisingly) let a woman do his bidding on this issue now, so he can't be labelled as a misogynist again. Letting Bishop attack Gillard is smart, and appeals to men, because at any moment some would like to have them have a pillow fight to get the winner.
My father said to me a while back 'I won't vote for her as she put in the Carbon Tax and said she wouldn't'.  My reply was 'How has the Carbon Tax affected you?' he said it hasn't. With the lying charge, this too is interesting.  As said above, political expediency makes for interesting times.  Do not think that if the Coalition were in the same position as the ALP that they would have done anything differently.  They would have been just as cheap.
Don't forget, that she is a woman and a lot of people (men strangely) simply don't like a powerful woman - unless she is in a bikini firing a machine gun.

The AWU issue
This comes back to the issue of integrity and the Woman factor.  I've read a bit about it and I think that simply, it is, again, men of a certain age wanting to know more than they should.  Reality is a lot of this stuff is often mentioned along with words sexual relationship.  Christ, we've all stuck our willies or let people in who we probably shouldn't have.  I don't see this as an issue, and now we have some old piss head called magically, Blewitt, wanting immunity from prosecution if he starts talking.  Gillard's partner of the time has come out and said that she knew nothing. 
Every bit of this is tawdry and aimed at making her look like a dimwit who makes bad decisions.
Some people would also like to know what the relationship was like, I've read the Pickering Post and this is what he seems to focus on.  Again, because the PM is a woman, obviously some men think that giving her a good rogering will sort her out! Spare me.
This issue is being used by a small number of people to push their own barrows for their own purposes.  It is a non issue, and one that people are getting tired of.

End.
As I said above, I have no issue with the PM being a woman.  The gender specific terms used in relation to the PM is disappointing.  I heard Abbott use the term shrill which immediately reminds you of women yelling and screaming in an uncontrollable manner. He uses words like to get a reaction from men, who are usually on the end of a barrelling from women.  This also pushes back to the Shakespearean play, The Taming of the Screw, which is what some men would want to do to Gillard.
The PM has been referred to as a Bitch before. I hated Howard with a passion, but I would call him other words, a bit more sweary than bitch.  But I would still use those terms to describe a woman.  I wouldn't call a male PM a bitch, he would be an arsehole, tool, fuckhead, unit or c*nt.  All of these I could be used to describe a female PM, and I have used many of these to describe a number of the Liberal frontbench.
In a past life I've had dealings with female members of the Liberal Party.  Most were OK, just like in the ALP, but occasionally you'd meet one who was as hardnosed and as focused as those in the ALP, I reckon that Abbott's chief of staff is like this and would be very determined.  She clearly is pushing the issue with Bishop and will make this issue not go away.  Interestingly today, I heard that Bishop had a meeting with Blewitt, but still described him as a fraud.  Happy to get info from him.
Problem is that those in the marginal seats are probably already set in the decision on who they are going to vote for.  In western Sydney and in other marginal seats there are a lot of people hocked up to the eyeballs with a mortgage and Commodore wagons and a Hi-Lux for dad. They'll probably vote for the party that gives them the most cash, or at least promises the most cash.  The Coalition have already started to indicate that their policies might change once in government, and you can guarantee they will.  So a vote for them will ensure that what you want isn't what you'll get.
Gen Y will vote Independent or Green, and they don't get their news from traditional sources like we do, so I have no idea how they get info on how to vote.   I've handed out plenty of how to vote cards, and can generally say it was old timers who voted Coalition, people my age and younger swung and Gen Y voted Green/Independent.  It is always tricky to win a third term and with KRudd pissing in from the outside and being a story when he isn't, the destabilisation will sit in people's minds and something the Coalition will use as well.

So, looks to me like the issue here is the PM is a woman and the Coalition had no plan once they saw that the Independents wouldn't turn on the ALP.  Unfortunately for the Coalition, and for us, the current political environment will continue if the Coalition are elected.  It has slipped down the slippery slope and won't be back from this for a long, long time. 





*I've been an ALP member before, so you can take the above how you want and publish that on your Blog.

An ultimate photo

Snapped this through the car window.

Was glad when they didn't turn off. 

Jeez, I am slack

Well, not much has been going on.  Was up for a couple of roles last week, and was knocked back. Pretty disappointing that.  I am starting to have enough of this.

What can you do?  No one is overly interested in my tales of woe.  There are people out there who are doing it harder than me, so I just have to get back into it.

Looks like The Boss will be moving back into full time employment.  The kids will be with me until I get a job, then into child care.  Not ideal, but there's not much I can do about it.

I do think that the economic situation here is harder than people realise.  I've gone for a number of roles that I believe I'm qualified for, never heard back, or if I do get an interview, the role offered is at a low rate of pay.  At the end of the day, there's not much I can do except get onto my knees.

My carpal tunnel is hopefully going to be sorted this week as well.  That's one part of the jigsaw that can be sorted.  Going to cost cash, but with three kids to look after I'm going to need two hands for backhanders.

I'm working on a longer, possibly more uplifting blog as well.  Excellent.

I am slack

Turns out I am.

What can I do. Since posting the last time back in September, I've been made redundant, got a job and had the contract end on me. Now I'm back looking. Been a tumultuous couple of months. In reality, I'm glad the contract ended as I had some serious reservations about the role and nearly every one of them came true.

Lesson learnt there!

Anyways, boys going well. Daughter going well as well. I am sure she gets her talkativeness from her mother.

Had to go to Highpoint this morning. Truth was we were both tired, and couldn't face the gym, so we bailed. There is a pretzel shop there, I had one.

Bad news is that not much has changed since I posted this: http://theworldseemsdifficult.blogspot.com.au/2006/02/shopping.html

I'm going to be posting more. Lovely.