Exercising

Well, I have done it. I have joined the gym. I have signed up at Get Fit For Life for the 12 week fast track programme. In addition to usual gym work this gets me one personal training session a week and a food diary (and presumably advice). My goal is to lose 8-10 kg over the 12 weeks (that will take me down to 92-92 kg).

They weren't scary at all. Just a bit distant. However, there aren't lots of Muscle Marys at this gym, so it won't be intimidating. It's also less than 100m from my flat, so no excuses.

Wish me luck!

City Bypass or City Distributor?

Over the past 15 years or so, building inner city bypass roads has become all the rage in Australia. Melbourne kicked things off with the massive CityLink project. Perth built the Graham Farmer Freeway, Brisbane the Inner City Bypass and Sydney the contentious cross-city tunnel. Even Adelaide has a bypass road linking Richmond with North Adelaide.

At the time these projects were sold as 'linking' the two sides of the city, catering for the massive demand for cross-suburban traffic and "reducing congestion" on inner city streets. Campaigners at the time argued stridently (but ultimately fruitlessly) against the projects, arguing that the verifiable demand for cross-suburban travel was low, and that if inner city streets were clogged, this was because of the demand for travel to the inner city areas. It was feared that these roads would act more as city distributors, making it easier to drive to the inner city (and competing with public transport where it was most efficient). The other fear was that by making long distance cross city commuting easier it would induce such travel, to the long term detriment of the city.

Now living in East Perth, I can see that in the case of the Graham Farmer, the first of these predictions has become true. Every evening from around 4.30 to 6.00 pm, the roads leading from the CBD through residential East Perth become clogged with traffic leading to the one westbound on ramp for the freeway. In other words, the Graham Farmer is acting as a massive city distributor being used for people commuting from the City to the Northwest suburbs of Perth.

I can't help wondering also if the problems the cross-city tunnel in Sydney are having are caused by the road being genuinely configured as a 'bypass' and thus useless for the majority of drivers.

I'd love to hear from people in other states who have experience with their 'city bypasses': are they real bypasses, or have they become massive city distributors to aid CBD and inner-city based commuting?

Getting fit

I've decided I really do need to get myself into shape. It's got to the stage I'm feeling the weight I am carrying in my knees and feet. With this in mind I have set myself a backwards "New Years Resolution": to get my weight down to 85 kg by New Year.

I don't have the self discipline to do it myself, so I think it will mean a gym with a proper programme. Problem is, I find male gym instructors freak me out. I don't know what it is but I just can't cope with fit men in a fitness environment. Women are fine. It must be some part of my inferiority complex.

Of course, the gym across the road from my place would have guys at the front counter today, wouldn't it?

Jet lag Thursday

I am totally stuffed today.

On Tuesday I flew to Brisbane.

Qantas wouldn't let me check into the earlier flight, so I boarded the 5.20 pm flight which got me into Brisbane at 11.30 pm. The Qantas flight was comfortable and they showed a movie which was very boring.

After a restless night at a hotel (not helped by 6 am bin emptying by big trucks) I spent the morning checking out potential properties to buy in Brisbane bayside (Lota/Thorneside/Birkdale). I had 6 properties to see between 9.30 am and 12.30 am in three suburbs and the train service between them is only half hourly. Somehow I managed it, but I then had barely enough time to grab a pie at a hot bread shop before another train back to South Brisbane then finding a bus to West End and a job interview at 3 pm.

(South bank/cultural centre bus interchange is amazing. A bus station in the centre of a main roadwith buses every few seconds it is also a request stop - and it turns out that the 199 West End service is not listed on the real-time departure screens.)

Then I had 2 hours of interviews with some really nice people I would like to work with, unfortunately fading fast at the end. A beer on the balcony with them (told you they were nice) , a lift back to South Brisbane station (ditt0), a train to Central and a quick bite in a fast food outlet then the Airport train to Brisbane airport. 7.55 pm departure to Melbourne with a looong flight arriving back at 11.45 pm.

I managed to read 3 fairly standard sized Inspector Thanet novels (one omnibus edition) on the flights and my head hurts.

Unuseable technology

The other day I was at a fast food establishment in lower North Perth. Next appointment for the day was to drop in at a Medicare office. Problem was I couldn't remember where they were. I should have just rung directory assistance, but I thought I might give the Internet on my new whizz-bang 3g mobile phone a go.

So I click the internet button and from the Bigpond mobile home page select "Sensis" (which made a big hoo-haa when launched a while ago about being the 'local ' search engine). I type "Medicare" in the search box and click find. In a moment, it tells me that there is no match for "Medicare" in West Perth. Well yes, but where in the Perth Metro Area is there one? I clicked 'change location' and while it told me that I was at 150 Charles Street, West Perth (was I? I'm not sure) I could not for the life of me work out how to change the location. Bah! At 45cents for 30 seconds, or whatever this is costing me, I can't be bothered. More unusable technology.

Does this make me a luddite?

Aaargh - airline websites

Yesterday I had to buy some "last minute" tickets for a quick visit to Brisbane next Tues/Wed. It turns out that the only Virgin Blue direct flight PER-BNE is a red-eye, and I'm not going down that route, not for only 1 or 2 days at the destination. The return flight is an evening flight, which is much better.

So it's Qantas (QF) PER-BNE on Tuesday, returning Virgin Blue (DJ) on Wednesday evening.

So far, so good.

Booking the DJ flight is no problem and I get myself a ticket for $275.

The QF flight is a different matter.

First, it turns out that there is some strange bug in their website which means that if you ask for PER-BNE flights it only shows (expensive) connecting flights via Melbourne or Sydney. However, if you use the 'change date' calender thingy and pick a date it will show direct flights (which happen to be cheaper as well as quicker).

After faffing about with the dates thingy I work out what is going on and book myself on a morning flight from Perth to Brisbane for a grand total of $318.

Or so I thought.

Literally seconds after finalising the payment I realise that in all the mucking about with the date calender thingy to get the flight I want I find that I have booked myself on the Monday and not the Tuesday as I wanted. I immediately go in and change my booking, at a rebooking fee of $38 (because it was a 'special' fare I initially booked). Bugger, but problem fixed.

Or so I thought.

This time in the faffing about to get the fare on the correct day I find that I have not booked myself on the morning flight, but rather the evening flight which gets in at a rather late 11.30 pm. There goes my evening in Brisbane. Bugger again!

I use the Internet for hours everyday, and this is probably the first time I have stuffed up like this. A combination of rush and a dodgy website have left me inconvenienced and out of pocket.

I've written to Qantas to ask for a refund of the rebooking fee, because their website is dodgy, and as for the second wrong flight, I think I'll just turn up at the airport early on Tuesday and ask if I can be squeezed on anyway. If not I'll just come back home again and read a book for a couple of hours.

Speaking of which, Borders has just opened in Perth...