As you would probably be aware from things I’ve written previously, 2UE’s weekday New Day Australia host Stuart Bocking is on semi-leave in Melbourne enjoying the Melbourne Cup carnival and reporting for 2UE, as such John Kerr is supposed to be filling in for him…fresh from his overseas holiday…but whoops? What was that? The plane or train or other form of transport leaving before John could get on board? Oh dear!
But never fear, Clive Robertson is here, and will fill in for Stuart Bocking and John Kerr. John should be back for the Tuesday morning show, and Stuart will probably be ready to take over from John on Thursday morning, allowing John to return to his weekend show on Saturday morning, unless Stuart gets stuck in Melbourne, in which case Clive Robertson or Clinton Maynard will fill in.
I’m still at a loss to find out who will fill in for John Stanley for his few days of honeymoon/Melbourne Cup leave this week, it’ll probably be Murray Olds…but we’ll see.
Unlike Channel Nine last year, ABC Television are spot on when they claim to be fifty years old…in fact, they are correct to the day.
On the 5th of November 1956, ABN-2 (see, the GST was coming all the way back in the 50s!) started broadcasting, and Robert Menzies (hence “Bob Commences”) said a few words to start the broadcast (well, it was near the start). The Sydney television station started up a mere 13 days before its Melbourne counterpart ABV-2 began, just in time for the Melbourne Olympic Games.
Tonight at 8:30, ABC Television are running a special “50 Years of ABC Television” broadcast, and tomorrow will be running the first of a two part series on “50 Years of ABC Television News”.
The ABC have been nice enough to put their opening blooper show broadcast online, which can be viewed by clicking here for Windows Media Format and here for MPEG4 format.
So, happy birthday ABC Television…and considering one of your more famous “Aunty” shows, I think the following song is in order!
For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow
For she’s a jolly good fellow (pause), and so say all of us
And so say all of us, and so say all of us
For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow
For she’s a jolly good fellow (pause), and so say all of us
The weeks are flying past at the moment…it doesn’t seem like a week since the last Musician Of The Week award, but it is, so here’s a new Musician Of The Week…Dean Martin! And the feature song is “Little Ole Wine Drinker, Me”.
I’m prayin’ for a rain in California
So the grapes can grow and they can make more wine
And I’m sitting in a honky in Chicago
With a broken heart and a woman on my mind.
I’ll ask the man behind the bar for the jukebox
And the music takes me back to Tennessee
And they ask “who’s the fool in the corner, cryin'”
I’ll say, “a little ole wine drinker, me”.
I came here last week from down in Nashville
‘Cause my baby left for Florida on a train
I thought I’d get a job and just forget her
But in Chicago a broken heart is still the same.
I’ll ask the man behind the bar for the jukebox
And the music takes me back to Tennessee
When they ask “who’s the fool in the corner, cryin’?”
I’ll say, “a little ole wine drinker, me”.
I’ll say, “a little ole wine drinker, me”.
The next few days on 2UE will be interesting…John Kerr is back in the country, and logically should be on New Day Australia right now…but he isn’t, and that’s because one of 2UE’s recently married people, Stuart Bocking, has taken leave to attend the Melbourne Cup, so John will be filling in for him on the weekday edition of New Day Australia until at least Wednesday.
Clinton Maynard is also on leave, so Clive Robertson is filling in for John Kerr this weekend…a lovely pleasant surprise…and I seem to recall that last time I spoke to him on New Day, I promised to call him again when he is on New Day again…looks like I have a task.
John Stanley is getting married this weekend, and is having his honeymoon in Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup. This probably means that Murray Olds will be filling in for him, although it would be nice to have John Mangos back for a change…but he fills in for Glenn Wheeler on the weekend now.
In semi-related news, this year will more than likely be the first time since 2003 that I have been away from home for the Melbourne Cup.
This week’s Friday Funny comes to us from Charity in Sydney.
A Scotsman phones a dentist to inquire about the cost for a tooth extraction. “$85 for an extraction, sir” the dentist replied.
“$85!!! Huv ye no’ got anythin’ cheaper?”
“That’s the normal charge,” said the dentist.
“Whit aboot if ye didnae use any anaesthetic?”
“That’s unusual, sir, but I could do it and knock $15 off.”
“Whit aboot if ye used one of your dentist trainees and still without an anaesthetic?”
“I can’t guarantee their professionalism and it’ll be painful. But the price could drop to $40”
“How aboot if ye make it a trainin’ session, ave yer student do the extraction, with the other students watchin’ and learnin’?”
It’ll be good for the students”, mulled the dentist. “I’ll charge you $5, but it’s going to be very traumatic.”
“Och, now yer talkin’ laddie! It’s a deal,” said the Scotsman. “Can ye confirm an appointment for the wife next Tuesday then?”
Do you have something you would like to contribute to Friday Funnies? If so, email it to smoothwallsamuel@gmail.com. All contributions welcome!
I did say that all plans to cover the opening of the Canberra Centre Expansion had been cancelled…and they were, until yesterday evening when I took Nattie for a walk around the shopping centre and saw more tradesmen than at any other time during the construction of the place, all working towards making the outside of the building presentable. (Hello to the person who stopped me to say hello and make a nice comment about this website).
Ultimately the Canberra Centre is still a construction site with a public walkway in the middle, there are a couple stores open, Big W and Supabarn the main attractions, but most of the stores don’t look like opening for another few days. My sources indicate that parking will remain a fiasco until Monday when the new parking is officially opened.
So, this morning I headed down there at about 7:30 and took a couple photos of the outside of the building. The outside of the building which is almost finished (and mostly open) looks reasonable.
The section of the carpark which has been turned into a shopping area is still to be completed, and to my horror appears to be open to the public to walk through. From upstairs it looked like the lights were off, so I didn’t venture down there, but I couldn’t see any barriers.
Further down Bunda Street is the front door of the “fresh food” (and general retail) section of the expansion, with signs around it to ensure that people know which door to go through and don’t dismiss the building as a construction site.
Precinct B opens in a couple weeks…but seems to be partially publicly accessible from the first floor of the “fresh food” area.
I then walked into the shopping centre and took some photos…I was starting to wonder how long it would be until Canberra Centre Marketing, who seem to specialise in giving Internet publications the run-around these days, would ask me to stop.
Supabarn is one of the few stores that seems to be openable…and they had no intention of waiting until any official opening.
Looking back towards the existing Canberra Centre and Healthy Life looks like it might open today, the chemist will open today (funny version of the corner of Petrie and Bunda Streets…looks like the old transformer/substation/corner store area will become an entrance into a new shopping precinct in the old Supabarn site after all). The fruit shop is a mess at the moment, and will probably open in a few days. Price Attack might open today, but they are still moving stock, so I doubt it.
It was around this time that a friendly security guard came up and gave me the expected news that “you can’t take photos in here unless you have clearance from Marketing…the stores are worried about the copyright of their store designs”…which, based on what I saw later on makes me think that traditional media have been given clearance to take pictures of anything which looks like an actual open and operating shopping centre, and not a construction site. The security guard, probably knowing that his official line was nonsense, was more than happy to tell me that photos from outside are acceptable…and there is nothing the Canberra Centre can do about them. He also didn’t ask me to delete any photos!
Up the other end of the lower floor is what looks like a full newsagent which will open today, JB Hi-Fi and Ted’s Cameras which may open today, and fresh food stores which probably won’t open for a few days (Chicken, Butcher, Fish etc). There is a lift at this end…not sure if it’s wring or not.
Upstairs Big W were having fun with a tiny crowd, over excited staff, a lunatic with a big bell trying to get everyone to yell out “B-I-G-W-Big W”, one camera crew with no obvious station markings (CC press release video perhaps?) and a person which didn’t look like a Canberra Times Journalist but was the closest thing to one by being allowed to hold a camera.
I had a little look around Big W which is about half the size of the Woden store (I tried to get an answer about the size but could only get staff saying “I haven’t seen Woden”) and, as it was approaching five past eight, decided I should get out into the main shopping centre for my pre-arranged phone call to 2CC’s Mike Jeffreys…on the way out I managed to set off the Big W theft detector for the first time ever and had to pull everything out of my bag…it turned out that a half-used packet of batteries I bought from Woolworths in Dickson was the culprit, and I was allowed to go on my way. Thankfully Mike’s interview went overtime and I had a few more minutes to find somewhere mildly quiet…but there was nowhere, so I just walked around the shopping centre and continued to do so while chatting with Mike. The conversation with Mike concluded moments before the angle-grinding started (thankfully).
I still can’t understand why the shopping centre expansion was opened today, the vast majority of stores are not finished, the public seem to be able to wander through construction sites, and they couldn’t even arrange for a dignitary to attend. As I said to Mike…unless you are desperate for a $50 34cm CRT television from Big W…wait a couple weeks before attending.
I did manage to get a few other photos before going to work.
By the way, the old city markets is closed, I may try to get a photo of it at some stage later today or tomorrow, as long as security or marketing aren’t too precious about it.
Canberra is now under Stage 2 water restrictions, which are remarkably similar to the old stage three water restrictions. Obviously “stage two” sounds less significant, drastic and urgent than “stage three”, and the redesignation of water restriction stages is probably a face saving measure from the Stanhope government who saw fit, for no decent reason, to lift water restrictions a while back.
A highlight of the restrictions is a ban on sprinkler and irrigation systems, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the sprinkler systems in common areas of government housing blocks, and other government buildings like Gorman House. In the case of government housing blocks, it is not uncommon for the sprinkler heads to be damaged and result in water fountains which rarely get fixed and waste a heap of water. Whether the government remember to turn off these systems is going to be quite interesting.
Certainly early signs are a poor indication for the government, with sprinklers watering the median strip on Northbourne Avenue, under the control of a Territory and Municipal Services employee, during peak hour this morning.
The other morning while I was writing the Canberra Centre Expansion Opens This Week story, I tried to upload the pictures to the webserver, only to get a disk full message from the FTP server. I checked the server status page and it was also reporting a full disk.
At 2:23am I rang Bluehost support via Skype and, despite it being a Sunday evening at Bluehost HQ, I got straight through to a technician who took a look at the issue and said they would get straight onto the issue, which he suspected may have been another using exceeding their quota. Of course this does raise the issue of why quotas aren’t being enforced (perhaps they didn’t expect anybody to exceed 50 gigabytes) and why there aren’t any systems in place to monitor disk usage.
So I finished off the text of the article, had a coffee and worked on another article. When I next checked the server status page at 3:08am I was pleased to see disk usage back down to 81%, so I uploaded the pictures.
At 3:12am I received an email from Chris Bankhead, the support technician I had spoken to on the phone, who informed me that the problem had been resolved, and apoligised for the inconvenience.
Whilst I’m still a bit perplexed at how the problem occured in the first place, I am very pleased with the prompt response of Bluehost support.
