Posts filed under 'Canberra Stories'
The picture below is of a fridge magnet sent out to all (or at least most) homes in the ACT by the ACT Government a few weeks. The fridge magnet was part of a set of literature outlining the current water conservation efforts, procedures and rules in the ACT.
The reason that I am showing this to you, is not to highlight ACT water conservation, but to bring to your attention a government document which is written is plain english (I’ll excuse the “high-pressure low-volume cleaner” as I think they have well and truly drummed the meaning of that term into us in other publicity campaigns). Not only does this document outline the rules in place in the ACT in a very clear and straightforward manner, it also adds little pictures for quick reference and to add context to the text. Contact details and the people behind the production of the magnet are also clearly identified.
I must say that this is a darn sight better than the Chief Turnip’s incoherent babbling from a few weeks ago.
I will be nominating this fridge magnet for an award in the “Plain English” category of the Plain English Campaign awards.
Samuel
May 19th, 2006 at 12:49pm
2CC’s “voice of reason” and 2UE/2CC afternoon host John Stanley has signed with Southern Cross Broadcasting until the end of 2008, which means that he will most likely continue to host “Afternoons with John Stanley” until the end of 2008. (That being said, if John Laws retires I wouldn’t be overly surprised if John Stanley takes over after a short period of Tim Webster filling in).
The thing that makes this story more interesting is that, during the regular segment with resident money expert of the afternoon show, Paul Clitheroe, just after the federal budget, John presented Paul with a hypothetical scenario about a person who seemed to match John’s own description, contemplating retirement, but wondering whether or not he should put it off for a few years, after taking into account the superannuation tax break announced in the federal budget. Paul suggested that it would be a good idea…and lo and behold a short time thereafter the news emerges that John Stanley has agreed to stay with 2UE and parent company for another couple years.
Coincidence? I think not.
Samuel
May 19th, 2006 at 09:13am
The previously reported potentially time travelling pointless busway has finally been shelved by the Chief Turnip Stanhope government.
It seems that they have finally seen the light and realised that the busway will do nothing to help public transport, or at least partially. The “new” transport minister, John Hargreaves (who has taken over the role from the disastrous Simon Corbell) has shelved the busway plan, stating that it will not be built in his lifetime. Chief Turnip Stanhope, who seems to specialise in silly rants and comments has decided that Hargreaves statement does not reflect the view of the government.
Thankfully the government will retain the land (it’s not as if you could really do much with the land other than build transport corridors) which they acquired for the busway, and possibly use it in the future for something slightly more sane.
As I suggested back in October, light rail would make much more sense between the town centres. Gungahlin is growing and is in severe need of proper public transport links, and there is a remote possibility of another town centre being built west of Weston Creek, or between Weston Creek and Belconnen, which would make light rail a much better option.
Light rail could be built between each town centre, and as it runs on its own tracks it would not need to worry about road congestion. It could also run more directly between town centres than roads can and do.
It is good that this expensive busway has been scrapped, as we don’t need it, and really have much more important things to spend money on, especially with a budget deficit (regardless of what accounting methods the Chief Turnip invents to turn a deficit into a surplus).
Samuel
May 18th, 2006 at 03:35pm
It’s been a little while since my last update on the Section 84 Development, and it seems like an appropriate time for another update as the Canberra Centre have released a newsletter about it. (Click the images to see the full size version of each page).
Here is the map of the development, which I will be referring to throughout the rest of this article. Please note that the map uses a severely outdated aerial photograph.
On Monday I went for a walk around the construction site, and took many photos (which seemed to attract the attention of a few construction workers). Some of the photos were designed to provide comparisons with my previous photos of the construction, others were designed to compare the current development status with artist’s impressions of the finished buildings, whilst others were taken simply for the sake of taking photos of the construction.
First up, here is a photo I took in early October last year, looking towards Precinct A from the corner of Bunda and Petrie streets.
Here is the artist’s impression of what it will look like upon completion.
Here is a photo taken on Monday, 8 May, 2006.
Here is an artist’s impression of what Petrie Street will look like from the corner of Petrie and Bunda streets.
This is what Petrie Street looked like from roughly the same spot on Monday.
Here is the artist’s impression of Precinct B from Bunda Street
And the photo I took on Monday.
Much like I did in March, I took more photos through peep holes on Bunda Street. Here is one from March
And a photo of the same spot on Monday.
One from March
One from May
This one is of Precinct A, from the section between Precinct A & Precinct B.
Moving on to Precinct B we have one from March
And a few from Monday
It looks like the Canberra Centre are already leasing out the shop space.
Moving on to Precinct C (The former site of the Griffin Centre, home of community radio station 2XX among other things), and some photos from Ballumbir Street.
I then walked around to the laneway on the side of Precinct C opposite Genge Street.
Which provided me with a good angle of Precinct B and the new Griffin Centre (Precinct E).
Walking back around to Ballumbir Street I noticed some rather interesting signs from “Go Traffic” which were informing people road work (in this case minor resealing works) on Torrens Street (the street almost directly under the “D”, and to the right of the words “Ballumbir Street” on the map).
I then walked between Precinct B and Precinct D to bring you more photos of Precinct B (Precinct D is not currently under construction, but will be when the carparks under Precincts A and B open).
In this photo you can see through to Bunda Street.
Whilst in this one you can see both Precinct A and Precinct B
Back in March I took the following photo of Precinct A and Precinct B from Ballumbir Street.
On Monday I took this one from a similar position.
Apparently Precincts B and C will look something like this
This one is looking into Precinct A from the same location as the previous photo, and looking towards Petrie Street.
In October I brought you these photos from Petrie Street, looking towards Precinct A, and in the distance Precinct B.
It certainly looks different down there now.
Here is one looking in to precinct A from Petrie Street
Whilst it is not shown on the map, Pecinct A actually continues all the way down Petrie Street, taking a narrow space away from Precinct F (The youth centre/skate park). A small section of the construction boundary does not have the green shadecloth material at the top of the skatepark.
I March I brought you some photos of the construction site from the top of the City Markets Car Park.
I took more photos on Monday
And finally, a photo of Ainslie Avenue from the other side of the City Markets Car Park.
May 12th, 2006 at 09:52am
About a week ago I brought you the news that 2CC are advertising on the backs of some ACTION Busses, I even brought you a photo of one such ad, spotted on the back of bus 999.
Unfortunately the back of bus 999 was a bit dirty when I took that photo, so I have since taken a photo of a 2CC ad on the back of a cleaner bus, although I can’t remember which bus it was.
I have been carefully monitoring busses that I see, and jotting down the bus number of busses which are carrying the ads, and so far I can confirm that there are 2CC ads on busses:
116
121
884
900
901
910
913
916
917
931
934
938
950
994
999
Whenever I have been at an interchange and had spare time whilst waiting for a bus, I have done a lap of the interchange to see which busses have the 2CC ad, today I did about five laps of Woden interchange.
Interestingly, I caught a number of busses today, and on all but one the driver was listening to 2CC…one such driver even turned the radio up so that most of the passengers could hear it (incidentally that bus had a 2CC ad on the back). This probably means one of three things:
- The ads are working, and people are making the switch to 2CC.
- 2CC have some kind of agreement with ACTION where certain busses have their radios tuned to 2CC (unlikely, virtually impossible to enforce…and probably not in drivers’ contracts).
- I was just lucky (again unlikely as I caught far too many busses for this to be a statistical anomaly).
Also interesting in this ratings season advertising blitz is that 2CC have let go of some advertising revenue, by placing the Southern Cross Syndication “BiteSize Cooking” program in an ad break during the John Laws Morning Show, with a spoken intro from Lawsie.
Also interesting is that the “instant ratings” (level of talkback calls on local programming) appear to be on the rise. This is probably another good sign for 2CC.
I am surprised that I have not seen any advertising from the other radio stations. Last year Mix 106.3 and FM104.7 advertised on taxis, the ABC advertised on commercial television, and 2CC/2CA did nothing noticeable…looks like the tables have turned this year (with the notable exception of 2CA).
I suppose the one thing which might work in 2CA’s favour is people who check out 2CC after seeing a bus ad, don’t like it, fiddle with the dial and land on “The new sound of Canberra’s 1053 2CA”, which reminds them of Mix 106.3 but sounds better, and so they stay. It’s a long shot but I’m sure it has happened to a few people.
Samuel
May 10th, 2006 at 04:33pm
Welcome to the first radio ratings season in Canberra, which will run from now until Saturday June 3, which means results will be due sometime around June 13.
If those of you with (and even the rest of us without) survey books could be so kind as to tune your radios to 2CC for the duration of this season I would be most grateful, and I’m sure you will agree that you have stumbled on to Canberra’s best radio station.
Naturally I’m looking forward to seeing how this ratings season pans out, 2CC are already off to a good start with ads on busses, but it will be interesting to see what tricks the other stations in Canberra pull out of their collective hats. Last year ABC Local Radio pulled off the dirty trick of advertising on commercial television, a trick I wouldn’t mind if they had advertising themselves, but the fact that they (the ABC as a whole) cry poor and then squander precious taxpayer funds on expensive television advertising is a very low and dirty trick. Of course the question as to why the ABC pay to be included in commercial radio ratings is beyond me, but I suppose they have to do something to make themselves look like a worthwhile budget hole. If the ABC are allowed in to the commercial radio ratings using taxpayer funds, perhaps the government should just make it an open and honest affair and pay for the community stations as well.
In my view, Canberra’s radio market is severely split into two markets, one being music, and the other being talk. In recent years the music market has been a fierce competition between Mix 106.3 and 104.7, with Triple J, ABC Classic FM and 2CA making up the rear of the pack. Last ratings season 104.7 gained an astonishing 2.6 ratings points to take the lead from Mix 106.3.
Having recently been subjected to multiple hearings of 104.7, I can safely say that I think they are going downhill quickly, and will struggle to retain top spot. Mix 106.3 will probably regain top spot, and the rest are unlikely to change. 2CA could have gained if they had informed Canberra of their new format which is similar to Mix 106.3, but as they haven’t done that, I don’t forsee many gains for them.
In the talk market, the ABC have dominated, with ABC Local Radio absolutely sweeping the field with just over 2.5 times the ratings share as second place 2CC in the last survey. Radio National were just behind 2CC last time, and News Radio came last in both the talk market, and the overall Canberra market.
This ratings season sees a few interesting changes. The ABC Local Radio lineup has changed, with the awful Ross Solly (who by his own admition entered radio because he was no good at farming) heading the convoluted breakfast schedule, and being followed by good newsreader but horrible feminazi Virginia Haussegger (already complained about on the ABC guestbook) as their answer to John Laws (good luck…Ha!). ABC Local Radio have also lost their main attraction of a saturday morning, gardening host Mark Carmody, which has probably prompted listeners to fiddle with the dial and find alternatives.
I can’t understand why the ABC insist on changing their schedule, if they want to keep listeners they need to find a schedule they can keep for any length of time. They are slowly but surely driving people mad with their constant schedule fiddles.
2CC have had the same schedule for quite some time, albeit with minor alterations caused by 2UE schedule changes. In fact the only real changes at 2CC in terms of local programming is minor improvements such as a recent change to the Trading Post (whoops, new sponsor, it’s the Tradies Post now…and I thought it was a typo in the script when I heard the promo for the first time) which made calling to sell things a fairer experience for all and sundry.
2CC have a tried and tested formula which is popular amongst the listeners (and much more interesting than ABC Local Radio in my opinion), and a timetable which is easier to remember.
Of the other stations in the market, ABC Radio National has had plenty of success in podcasting, which has probably raised their “brand awareness value”, which in turn may work in their favour, although I think when it comes to their programming which has no local content, people might be happy with just the podcasts. ABC News Radio is really facing extermination here, their conversion to FM didn’t help them in the last survey, and the only reasons they survive is the taxpayer funding that keeps them there, and the fact that the other ABC stations don’t really want to take over the parliament broadcasts, which are a niche market and bore most people to tears (I personally love televised question time, which is a circus of comedic proportions). The budget proceedings may help News Radio, but their chances of getting anywhere in this survey are almost null.
It’s an interesting few weeks ahead in Canberra, and I wish all the stations the best of luck, although I wish 2CA and 2CC much more luck than the others!
Samuel
May 7th, 2006 at 12:27am
Try singing the title to the tune of “The Wheels On The Bus” and you will get my drift…and it’s all true, 2CC are advertising on the rear of ACTION busses, which is really very clever as the one place where virtually everyone has access to a radio is on the road.
The photo above is of the 2CC ad on the rear of ACTION bus 999, On Sunday I saw one on 884, and I am reliably informed that there are also 2CC ads on busses 931 & 994, plus many others. “Renault Rider” informs me that the ads are on at least ten busses, and probably more.
Most of the ads are actually on the rear window, but on 999 it is lower for some reason. Interestingly, the current promo for the Mike Jeffreys Breakfast Programme contains a caller informing Mike Jeffreys that he has been following him on the back of a bus and that the only person missing is Mike Frame (factually inaccurate, but we’ll get to that shortly), Mike Jeffreys jokingly suggests to the caller that Mike Frame is running around sticking his own photo on the back of busses. The promo then cuts to a portion of the next traffic report where Mike “Frame in the Plane” Frame tells Mike Jeffreys that there wasn’t any room on the ad after Mike Jeffreys, they then joke about it for a bit and Mike Frame insists that he is a big fan of Mike Jeffreys.
That paragraph is nauseating with all of the Mikes, so I will try and record a copy of the promo which should make the whole thing clearer.
Moving on from that, it is time to scrutinise the ad. I don’t want to be critical as I am pleased to see 2CC finally doing something about getting their name out there, but I feel that a bit of light hearted analysis is good for everybody. I am hopeful that sister station 2CA (with their new format reminiscent of “Mix 106.3”) will follow 2CC’s lead, as I doubt that anybody other than 2CA’s listeners know that 2CA have a new format.
The most notable absence from the ad (other than Framey) is weekday afternoon announcer John Stanley, who is undoubtedly a large part of the lineup, however it is important to notice that they probably could only fit five people on the ad, and that meant throwing their relatively well known NRL commentator into the mix.
What really surprised me was that Stan Zemanek got the all-important centre position, when I have always regarded John Laws as the “big name” of 2CC. Stan does pull in a big audience of loyal fans, but I was surprised to see him getting the middle spot and not Lawsie.
Speaking of Lawsie, why is he next to Mike Jeffreys? It is well known that the two aren’t exactly best friends, but I suppose you could argue that they are two relatively high profile respected commentators on matters of news and politics, and should be grouped together as the “powerful morning duo”.
Having Mike Welsh on the other side of the ad gives listeners a feeling of balanced local broadcasters (Jeffreys on one side of the ad, and Welshy on the other), which seems to work, and having Hadley on the far end does emphasise a commitment to quality NRL coverage.
I would say that choosing the people and positions on the ad would have been a hard choice given the limited space, but I think it works quite well.
Now, time to work out where the images came from. Firstly a recap of what the ad looked like.
To start with we have the blue “2CC” letters from the 2CC logo in the background.
Then we have Mike Jeffreys, as seen on his 2CC postcard.
Then Lawsie as seen in a recent publicity shot, but rotated so that he isn’t leaning over.
Next, Stan Zemanek, from a publicity shot he uses on his postcards (source: http://www.sonieland.com/2005_04_01_archive.html).
This is followed by a reversed photo of Mike Welsh (Just like Mike Jeffreys, it is from his 2CC publicity show as seen on his 2CC postcards) to make it look like everyone is huddled around in a minor semi-circle.
And finally Ray Hadley. This appears to have come from a 2GB publicity shot, although the only copy I can find of it is a thumbnailed version used on the 2GB homepage.
On the whole, I think 2CC have made a very smart move, and I hope they reap the rewards. Well done 2CC!
Samuel
May 4th, 2006 at 08:34am
I’m pleased to be able to announce that yesterday when I went in to Supabarn I received a receipt printed on receipt paper much more suitable for a Supabarn checkout.
If we zoom in on the text between the ads we see this:
On Sunday I received Big W paper from Supabarn, so it looks like Supabarn either received a shipment of corrected receipt paper late last week and finished off the Big W paper over the weekend, or they received a shipment of corrected receipt paper yesterday. Either way, well done to Supabarn and Magnus Advertising for fixing the issue, and a special congratulations to Andy Vaccaro, store manager of City Supabarn for taking notice of my letter and doing something about it, and especially for having the courtesy to reply to it. Well done Andy, you are leading the pack, and there are plenty of other managers out there who could learn a thing or two from you.
I’m glad the issue has been sorted out, I believe that it was the result of a minor data entry accident, and it is good to see that it was sorted out in a prompt manner (once they knew about it).
Samuel
May 2nd, 2006 at 08:38am
As you may recall from this post and this post, Magnus Advertising sent the wrong receipt paper to Supabarn, presumably by accident.
I wrote a letter each to City Supabarn and Magnus Advertising to inform them of the error, and in today’s mail I received a reply from Andy Vaccaro, Store Manager presumably of City Supabarn.
The letter reads:
Dear Mr Gordon-Stewart,
Thank you for being a valued customer of Supabarn.
Further to the issue you discussed in your letter dated 19th April 2006, we have since been in contact with Magnus Advertising, who is working to fix this issue.
Once again I would like to thank you for shopping at Supabarn and for alerting us of the printing error on our receipt rolls.
Yours faithfully,
Andy Vaccaro
Store Manager
It’s nice to know that I made a difference, and it is extremely nice to know that my letter has been acted on.
Samuel
April 27th, 2006 at 03:26pm
2CC had a busy day yesterday. Firstly newsreader Kris McKenzie is back from holidays, even though they are still looking for a senior journalist. I really did think that Kris was gone, the job ad and his lengthy absence almost added up, although I have to admit that the constant changing of afternoon newsreader didn’t. It is great to have Kris back, as I’m sure a lot of listeners would agree.
Speaking of listeners, plenty of them would have noticed the strange actions of the 2CC transmitter from about 2:45pm onwards, it really sounds like it is having power issues (of course with Canberra’s electricity infrastructure that could be ActewAGL’s fault) as it seems to cut out at random, sometime not transmitting at all for a short while, other times transmitting a very weak signal, and always returning with a signal that fades in from static. Thankfully the problems seemed to be contained to the hour after 2:45.
And as previously reported, Andrew Pye has left, his final day was yesterday, prepare for Mike “Frame In The Plane” today. I received a letter on Monday from the Australian Traffic Network informing me that I was an unsuccessful applicant for the position (no real surprise), which probably indicates that they have appointed someone to that position, and there is a very good chance that it is Mike Frame. None the less, I will keep my ear to the ground and let you know if I hear anything, as it is quite feasable that Mike is just filling in.
Incidentally, in Andrew’s last traffic report he denied being the Carpet Court Jester, Dave Hughes, the bloke from the AMI Nasal Spray ads (don’t ask), and a multitude of other people and characters which people have accused him of. Regardless of what he says, I still think he is the Carpet Court jester and just won’t own up to wearing that hat.
Oh well, best of luck Andrew, enjoy your copywriting at 2ST Wollongong.
Samuel
April 27th, 2006 at 12:27am
You may recall that earlier this month I informed you of some changes at ACTION Buses, including a timetable change scheduled for August.
According to my sources, this has now been put back to September, and may be further delayed as these changes require careful negotiation with affected unions, and a lot of time and resources need to be spent on getting the new timetable ready, which not only means generating new driver shifts, but also preparing bus timetables and informing people of the change.
What most bus travellers are not aware of, is that bus drivers have different shifts during the school term and the school holidays, to accomodate for the school bus services (which obviously don’t run during school holidays). This generally means that it is easier to launch a new timetable, and effectively new shifts, on the Monday that schools resume. In that case, I will say right now that the earliest we are likely to see a timetable change is Monday, October 16, and if we don’t see it then we will just have to wait for next year.
Samuel
April 26th, 2006 at 08:27am
As you would probably be aware, Nattie & I went down to the lawns in front of Old Parliament House on Sunday morning for the final morning of the 2006 Canberra Balloon Fiesta. This was something Nattie & I had been planning on doing ever since the “Circus of the air” hot air balloon festival around Canberra Day. Normally the Balloon Fiesta is held in the week leading up to Canberra Day, but this year it was moved to the autumn school holidays as an experiment.
Anyway, at 5am I got out of bed, after having no sleep but instead listening to John Kerr on 2CC whilst keeping warm with a hot water bottle. At about 5:15 I gave John a call and had a chat with his lovely producer Leonie, before having a chat with John.
At 5am it was about -2°C, and it warmed up slightly to hover around the -1°C – 0°C mark for the next couple of hours.
At 5:35 Nattie and I left for our walkies, and by 6am we were walking along Commonwealth Avenue, which is a little bit ahead of where we were last time we walked to the hot air balloons. Unfortunately John’s show ran into the news and there wasn’t any time for him to play “Good Morning Good Morning”, so I sang it anyway.
As we crossed Lake Burley Griffin on the Commonwealth Avenue bridge, we stopped to look out over the lake. It was still quite dark, with just a little bit of light in the sky, but the camera did a good job of “over exposing” the image to produce a brighter picture.
The Carillion was also looking good.
As we got closer to the Balloon Fiesta, Nattie could smell the breakfast being cooked, and started to pull harder on the lead in an effort to get there quicker. We arrived at the event and heard Mike Frame acting as the master of ceremonies, and walked over to the stage to say hello to him. After that we went to the food tent and got some breakfast. We chose the bacon, egg and toast breakfast, with a cup of coffee.
Nattie decided that we weren’t leaving the food tent to sit down at a table unless she got some food first, so the food on the plate in this photo is already depleted of some bacon.
Nattie and I shared the bacon.
I ate the egg, but Nattie insisted on having some toast. She also insisted on licking the plate when we were finished.
By this time the balloons were starting to be inflated. Some balloons were unusual shapes, and this one had a cat on the roof (that will make sense when you see the balloon in later photos).
Mike Frame was still acting as master of ceremonies.
Nattie was looking back towards the food tent.
Mike Frame was having his maiden hot air balloon flight, so Nattie and I followed him over to the area near where his balloon would take off from, and we watched the many balloons inflating.
The “Liberty” balloon is the one with the cat on the roof.
This photo is rather interesting in that we have two inflated hot air balloons, some inflating hot air balloons, plenty of bystanders (including Mike Frame bottom left, and new MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Andrew Barr bottom centre), Mount Ainslie in the background, and the dome of the war memorial directly below the peak of Mount Ainslie and just poking up above the roof of the car.
The Click Photo balloons was the first off the ground.
As the balloons continued to inflate, Mike Frame and Susan (I’m not sure of the exact relationship, although I’m sure I’ve heard Mike mention her name on 2CC) posed for a photo. Mike is holding a Canberra Balloon Fiesta mug.
The Liberty Financial balloon started to hover just above the ground. It appears to be harder to get cube type balloons off the ground.
It floated around for a while, and seemed to be heading in the general direction of the pond in front of Old Parliament House, thankfully there were plenty of balloon staff on hand to guide it away from the pond.
The cat seemed happy on top of the Liberty Financial Balloon though.
Mike Frame’s balloon was inflated and almost ready to go.
Mike Frame entered the basket.
Other balloons continued to inflate.
Mike Frame seemed quite happy to have a chat whilst waiting for the balloon to take off.
More balloons took off.
The Liberty Financial balloon finally got off the ground.
Nattie was keenly looking on.
One of the balloons seemed very happy. (The John Stanley “Accentuate The Positive” Balloon perhaps?)
The Bumble Bee Balloons inflated.
Mike Frame in a moment of madness, pretending to be very nervous, as the balloon started to take off. New MLA Andrew Barr is behind Mike Frame.
Up, Up and Awaaaaaaaaay….
Mike Frame can be seen in this photo looking back towards the lawns of Old Parliament House.
Of course there were plenty of other balloons taking off.
Including the bumble bee ballons, which tend to fly together.
There was certainly no shortage of balloons…they just kept popping up everywhere.
It was about 7:15am, and Mike Frame gave David Young a call on 2CC’s “David Young’s Garden” programme. David lives in Yarralumla, and Mike said he could see David’s house, he also tested out his “Frame in the Plane” traffic reporting ability by correctly indentifying Parliament House. Incidentally, Mike was in the Doma Hotels balloon. People in Canberra may recall that Doma Hotels did some skywriting a couple years ago. Between 7am and 8am the temperature rose to 1°C.
More balloons appeared, this time it was a windmill balloon.
And the bagpipe player.
A clearer photo of the windmill.
The bagpipe player seemed to match the building behind it.
Ye gods…more balloons…
Balloons do look good amongst the autumn foliage.
The windmill balloon took off.
And flew directly overhead
Nattie and I then started to walk home, whilst listening to David Young’s Garden on the radio. As we reached the Commonwealth Avenue bridge we saw some of the hot air balloons. Unfortunately the lens had some moisture on it, and part of the camera strap in front of it, but if you look to the left of the middle lamp post you will see a red and white hot air balloon, with another balloon above it, which looks a bit like a “patchwork art” balloon.
And a few more.
The Doma Hotels balloon was flying over Yarralumla.
Lake Burley Griffin was evaporating…you know its cold when you can see the moisture in the air at low altitude.
A short time later the Doma Hotels Balloon came down in Yarralumla, maybe they really did land in David Young’s Garden! Of course it is also possible that they merely floated at low altitude before taking off again, but it appeared to be down from where Nattie & I were on Commonwealth Avenue.
Nattie and I got home around 8am. Nattie went back to bed, and I had a cup of coffee.
Samuel
April 24th, 2006 at 01:07pm
You might recall the story from Tuesday about Magnus Advertising sending the wrong receipt paper to Supabarn. Well it just got a bite more interesting.
Yesterday another person in the household visited Supabarn (EFTPOS transaction blurred by Samuel).
The back of the receipt looked about the same as last time…
Except for one small difference…see that up the top:
It looks like Magnus print destination stores on the receipt paper, which probably means that somebody made a data entry error prior to printing, and the Big W receipt paper was assigned to the wrong client. Whilst these errors will happen from time to time in automated environments, it is a pity that nearly a week later Supabarn are still using the incorrectly addressed Big W batch, as this probably means nobody picked up on the error until it was far too late.
It is probably too late for either Magnus or Supabarn to do anything about it (after all Supabarn need receipt paper), but I have written letters to both of them bring the matter to their attention. I only got around to posting them late last week, so I’m not execting a reply until early to mid this week, and even then I wouldn’t be surprised if they say that there isn’t anything they can do about the error.
I do want to make something very clear here. I am not trying to criticise Magnus, Supabarn or anyone else for this, I just want to make sure that the people involved know about the problem, and the rest of us can gain some entertainment from it, and learn a bit more about the receipt advertising industry in the process.
Samuel
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:40pm
You might recall that we previously met Catherine Garrett in about half a second of video where she introduces Daniel Gibson, who is showing off my weather picture in 2000.
I met Catherine in 1999 when she was reporting on a story about ACTION hiring female bus drivers and she had a cameraman with her filming the bus driver of a school bus outside Ainslie Primary School. On that occasion we had a chat and she gave me a “Prime Possum” postcard, which I still have here somewhere.
Prior to Prime Local News going to air with my weather picture in 2000, I rang through to speak to Daniel Gibson and ended up having a brief chat with Catherine, who remembered me from our conversation the year before, and even remembered some of the subject matter.
Since then, Prime Local News folded and Catherine went to the ABC as a reporter on their local news service. In 2002 I was informed by an ABC reporter that she had gone on maternity leave, and the next I heard of her was last year when she wrote one of the rare useful articles in City Ads, about her time in Germany with Deutsche Wells Television.
Catherine is now back in Australia and is a reporter and producer for the ACT edition of Stateline, the weekly state/terriotry based current affairs show on ABC Television.
Regular host of ACT Stateline, Phillip Williams is overseas reporting on the events in the Solomon Islands, so Catherine Garrett filled in on Friday night, looking as bright and bubbly as ever.
I’m obviously very late in welcoming Catherine back to Australia and Canberra, but I must say that it is great to have her back, and I will send her a letter on Monday to say just that.
Welcome back Catherine!
Samuel
April 23rd, 2006 at 08:50am
Mike Frame’s business card just keeps on growing, he’s already 2CC’s Classic Aussie & unofficial Lawn Bowls correspondent, as well as Southern Cross Ten’s colourful racing personality/racing commentator, and even New South Wales Lotteries’ ACT Promotions Person. Now he gets to add “Frame in the Plane” to it (if it fits).
Mike Frame is the new 2CC/2CA traffic reporter, as Andrew “Pye in the Sky” Pye is the new copywriter at 2ST Wollongong, after their previous copywriter left for the UK.
This is where things start to get a little bit convoluted. 2CC/2CA use the services of The Australian Traffic Network for their traffic reports, as do many other stations around the country. ATN provide traffic reporters to radio stations, and do so in a very transparent way, which makes the traffic reporters appear to work for the radio stations in the minds of listeners. Andrew Pye did work for 2CC on occasion as a panel operator and “around the grounds reporter” during Canberra Raiders matches. Mike Frame continues to work for 2CC as an announcer.
Andrew’s position with ATN was advertised on radioinfo a couple weeks ago, and I applied for it, although with the speed at which things I post seem to be moving of late, I wouldn’t be surprised if my application hasn’t left the post office yet.
The question that I am having trouble with at the moment is working out whether or not Mike Frame (who called himself “Frame in the Plane” this morning on Weekend Magazine…if they are still calling it that) is the permanent replacement for Andrew Pye, or just filling in? I suppose time will tell.
Samuel
April 22nd, 2006 at 04:22pm
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