Big Africa

The world has a new map, a more realistic map for actually showing the size of various continents, and while I know things in African are big, very big, the continent is much larger than depicted on the old Mercator Map.

Wow!

A #47 win?

If you care to, can you check your Google Maps and see what Gulf of Mexico brings up for you, especially if you are in the Americas. Here is what I see in Australia. Place name changing is a bit topical in North America at the moment. If it is hard to see, my view says Gulf of Mexico and in brackets, Gulf of America.

Sunday Selections

River and others participate in Sunday Selections, as I do but not every Sunday.

Jass showed great interest when this toy arrived in the post from Temu. Lordy, the rubbish P&K order at Temu. She was never inclined to pursue it, but from a raised position, she liked to monitor it carefully. Today, she just ignored it and went off to another room.

The problem with it is it stops after five minutes when it could be under furniture. There is a second one but it is under a bed somewhere, and I ain't gettin' down to find it. A phone charger gives it too much current so I charge it via the desktops USB outlet. This is on its slow setting. 

It is always exciting to see balloons fire up their gas burners.

Can you work out what this map shows? New Zealand is the only yellow country, and Australia and England have something in common, and I think Ireland should probably be green too, or do you disagree with that from your Irish people experiences. Later edit: Think of a swear word.

And as Sandra Cox says each Wednesday, I didn't know that; in Australia men's shoe measurements are in UK sizes, as is New Zealand's, but women's shoes in Australia use American sizes. Why? I am a 9, which I guess is nine inches, a very satisfying number.

Lunch and a puzzle

By popular demand, I have now included the photos. Most of this was a copy and paste of my notes as I looked at each photo, and I didn't intend to include the photos, as my friend has the photos to refer to. But here they are now.

I had lunch with Wombat in town yesterday. It was a such a nice catch up with someone who I have a long history with, maybe thirty years. 

She had three photos with her that she couldn't remember when and where. Here is a paste of what I could work out from the photos.

Photo 1.

First Domain Interchange opened 1986.

Interchange doesn't look new. W class trams dominate but 1 Z class at interchange siding to make a return journey to West Coburg.

The tree leaves look very fresh and full, so I suggest the season is spring.

It's been raining and there is significant flooding on the inbound service road. I don't recall water pooling there.

BP House doesn't seem to have been converted to The Domain. The conversion was completed in 1995.

I suggest the photo was taken in 1993, or maybe 1994.

Photo 2.

The trees appear the same and the roadway and dome of the synagogue is wet. Photo taken on the same day. A Z class tram is visible in St Kilda Road.

I can't see anything useful in this photo.

Photo 3.

The dominant Australian Unity building was in Albert Road. I can remember seeing it from Kingsway, especially when we used to go to the long gone Palmerston Hotel. I'd be outside in the beer garden taking in some fresh air and looking up at the building.

I conclude in spring about 1994 you were in a high rise building in St Kilda Road between Park Street and Dorcas Street, with unobscured views to the east, south and south west, and there had been heavy rain. You were about 29 years old. Channel 7 studios were in Dorcas Street and it was perhaps the tallest building in the area at the time.  Lol, were you on tv? In the audience for a game show? 

But no. That doesn't add up. I can't remember the tall buildings now at that location, but it clearly was tall. 

Pleasing the residents of Isle of Man

10.10pm. "Phyllis, shut up and stop distracting me. I am faced with a blank page for tomorrow's blog post and frigging well move your shell collection as the printer needs to be loaded with paper".

I think this is a better map of Great Britain than I last showed and less likely to offend those on an semi independent island off Great Britain's west coast. Can any of you see a problem with the map? 

Maps

I don't think this last YouTube clip from Map Men is their most interesting, but I've enjoyed and found many of clips interesting. I do love me a map, and I have rather a lot of them, loose maps, and as here, my street directories, which I think in England are called A to Z. I don't know what they were called in America. In Melbourne we turned the brand name Melways into a generic name. They are a bit of history now, and that's why I keep what I have. Real estate agents added a Melway reference map number and grid reference to their property advertisements. 

Just before Google maps came to the fore, with a new car we were presented a small Melbourne street directory. While not pocket sized, it was small enough to carry in my backpack when I went out. I used it a few times. Very soon, Google maps on my phone made it redundant.

So yes, I have a number of street directories. This is the oldest and it was my grandfather's I guess published in the 1940s. It is brilliant for old tram and train lines that no longer exist, along with lost streets, like the delightfully name Sloss Street that ran along the frontage of what is now the School of the Arts Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Building.

My first Melways, 1978 edition 11.

I the mid 1980s we visited Adelaide and I must have decided I needed a street directory.

The last Melways I bought, edition 39.

Melways stepped into Sydney with its Sydway. I think the dominant directory there was UBD or perhaps Gregory's. 

UBD also produced a Melbourne street directory, this being a reproduction of the 1956 edition with information about the Olympic Games, held here that year. 

This 1934 Gregory's reproduction edition is terrific as it shows Sydney tram system at perhaps its full extent. 

Edition 29 of Melways  I used to mark all of Melbourne's former tram and train lines that existed, along with the tramways in the regional cities of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat. My step father when he was still alive checked my markings on the Geelong map for accuracy and I had done well. 

This marking shows the old inner city railway line. I walked both the inner city circle and the outer circle railway a decade or so ago and blogged about the walks on my old blog. It's strange that I can't find time for such projects now I am a retired person. 

I stapled notes on paper to explain what the lines on the map to explain what I showed. 

I thought I had a reproduction of the first Melways, 1966 but it seems not. It can be found online here. 

I began thinking about this post last week and it then occurred to me to make a second post with my Atlases, but someone beat me to it with her atlases. 

It's a big one missy

Australia is a geographically large country.

How big? This big, with Europe easily fitting in. I think there would be room for Ukraine and other countries but we won't add Russia. 

I've told this story before but when Ray's parents visited from England in the 1980s, as their plane entered the north west coast of Australia, Ray's mother got up to refresh her makeup. Five or more hours the plane reached Melbourne on the south eastern coast. 

We can do better than the above. Let's cram the countries in. If it isn't clear, the large orange bit in the centre is South Africa and I think the arrow on the right without a name is pointing to Ireland. While the main focus is European countries, the map manages to squeeze in the US states of Maine and Ohio, along with the South and Central American countries Ecuador and Nicaragua. It is unclear what the orange central chunk is to me. Surely not South Africa. 

I am surprised a little by the large size of Spain. Are you surprised about any of the countries? Your own?

I would use this in a separate post if it was a readable size. I believe it shows Australia's tribal Aboriginal regions. It does give you an idea of the complexity of tribal life. 

How to piss off Kiwis, #101

Amazing Maps is truly amazing, with New Zealand off Australia's west coast and not where it is off our east coast. Mind, it would be very convenient. Perth to Rottnest Island, see the quokkas, and then a short hop to see the Kiwi bird in New Zealand.