Heartbreak Hill

This month the world's biggest fun run happens in Sydney, called the City2Surf. A friend my age is running, along with the lad he is mentoring. 

In 1961 trams disappeared from the streets of Sydney. From my reading and knowledge of the system, it  was so huge, I struggle to understand how it was manageable and yet offered such an excellent service.

This rather good photo for its time shows a Sydney R Class tram travelling to the city from Watsons Bay as it descends the steep hill between Vaucluse and Rose Bay. The line was closed and then due to public pressure, reopened but then a final closure happened and as the last tram ran a following truck took down the overhead wiring. That was the end of a wonderfully scenic and very busy tram route. Buses then covered the route. Yuk. 

The City2Surf runners must ascend this hill as they run from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach. This part of the race where the tram is descending in known as Heartbreak Hill. It's easy for cars and trams to climb, but not so easy for runners. 

Mondegreen

Mondegreen comes from people hearing 'laid him on the green', as 'Lady Mondegreen'. 

While I know I am wrong, I still hear Macy Gray singing in her hit song I Try, 'I try to say goodbye my old chook' instead of 'I try to say goodbye and I choke'. I think this happens because of her pronunciation of choke. I simply can't unhear chook in the song line when I hear it. I don't know if the word chook is known around the world but it means a hen, of the common variety that give us eggs to eat. 

I saw something this day (I've just been reminded by a television commercial that's using the song) as I write this reminded me of another of my Mondegreen moments when I was very young. 

It is not,

My body lies over the ocean

My body lies over the seas,

but it is

My Bonnie lies over the ocean

My Bonnie lies over the sea.

My extensive one minute research indicates a capital B for Bonnie, so she is not a bonnie (good and nice looking) lass but her name is Bonnie. 

I'm sure I have other Mondegreens, but what are yours?

This seems to a modern image of a bonnie lass.  (I can't find who created this image)

Your History

I don't know why Google Maps has done this, but it has removed the travel history feature from web browsers, effectively meaning you can't see it on a desktop or I guess laptop. It can be time consuming but my photos upload to my desktop, numbered with a date and time. If I really need to find where a photo was taken, I check the date and then check on Google Maps where I visited that day.

Of course I can check on my Google Maps phone app, or tablet, but it is quicker and easier on the desktop. Yes, I am a dinosaur with my preference for a desktop computer.

It was not so long ago that you could do more on a desktop than with an app on your phone. I've noticed this is changing with apps are able to do more and more easily than a desktop. One instance is phone banking apps. A lot of time, effort and money must have put into these apps. I haven't needed to log in to bank using my desktop for ages. I can do all with the apps. 

This is a travel map of the day completed the target of travelling on every Melbourne tram route, the largest tram system in the world, by travelling on the outer end of route 75 to Vermont South from Camberwell Junction. It was rather boring but fortunately I had the company of my friend from the Gold Coast. 

Here is the map showing my travel. It is not entirely correct as we walked from Toorak Road to Hartwell Station, quite a distance. It was a case of thinking you know but you don't. 

Here is a link to when I was at Harwell and took some mural photos. Ah, I found the others. 

Tram to Melbourne Flinders Street, train to Camberwell, walk down the Burke Road hill to catch the 75 to the terminus. Return on the tram to Hartwell, walk to the station, train to the city. We missed a train by a couple of minutes so I think we had twenty minutes to wait, but fortunately the next was the start of through trains in the evening peak, instead of Alamein shuttle train to Camberwell and then change to a Belgrave or Lilydale train to continue to the city.  

Similar but not quite the same

What are 3 reasons why one should NOT move to the UK?

Originally Answered: What are 3 reasons why one should NOT to move to the UK?

1. If you hate the rain and prefer an arid climate.
2. If you need wide, open spaces and the knowledge that there isn't another human for a hundred miles.
3. If you're unwilling to say sorry when someone else bumps into you.

Number 3 happens in Australia too, at least among we Boomers and Gen X. Maybe all generations. While someone might come crashing out a shop door into you, you will both apologise to each other. If you try to enter a lift as some is exiting, even though the person existing has right of way, you will both apologise to each other. 

Speaking of lifts, I can't remember if I mentioned last year when we were staying in a hotel in Chesterfield, England, I think I committed a grave faux pas.

I was travelling to the hotel's ground floor by lift. I didn't expect there to be anyone going up when I reached the ground floor. As the lift arrived at ground, a man tried to step into the lift and then correct lift etiquette prevailed and he stepped back to let me out. Yeah man, that is how we do it in Australia too. 

Yet he said, 'You're welcome', in a passive aggressive manner to me.  I found nothing to thank him for but I should have said thanks. It was a simple lift transaction, yet I got English super politeness very wrong.

Monday Mural

I am joining with Sami and others for Monday Mural. Now what to have saved to use today? 

It isn't too special but I think it is quite well painted and it's a friendly mural. 

Sunday Selections

I'm joining Elephant's Child, River and others with my usual random unused photos.

Not quite grammatically correct, but I get the meaning. If only dogs could read. 

What is this bird? I should do homework.

I once drove a distinctive car, a Humber Super Snipe. Never again. 

I think I saved this photo to send to Public Transport Victoria to show overcrowding on route 16 after the 3a was cancelled and the weekend service level to St Kilda was halved. That's Ray, the tallest standing closest to camera. Not a seat in sight for a then 74 year old man.

Who knows where, but it is a classy clock.

A sculpture somewhere near a station on the Upfield railway line. 

An elderly driver mistook the car pedals and accelerated into this seat outside South Melbourne Central. The City of Port Phillip quickly replaced the seat. No one was on the seat when it was hit, but it could have been a disaster. Old drivers mixing up pedals is a constant and they need to be removed from our roads. And it's not like local old residents can't use the plentiful public transport. 

I may have mentioned this toaster before. Frozen bread, 15 seconds in the microwave, then the maximum setting on the toaster. Perfect toast. The toaster cost $8. Unbelievable. 

Nice evening light over the suburb of South Yarra, taken from my balcony.

I was once young enough to shop for clothing in Dangerfield. We bought Jo's 2023 Christmas present here. 

A healthy green wall.