Buses: a mysterious dimension I stumbled into one day

I never liked buses. I ride to work, and could think of nothing more nostalgic, transport wise, than rail journeys through the ideal villages of rural India. Then I realised I was too old to ride to work in winter. Then I realised I wasn’t and got some polypropelene gloves. In between, I decided to walk one day to work. I was told it would take 40 minutes. As I was about to cross Hoddle St, a bus marked “Queen St” like millions of others which must have gone by me pulled up and opened its door in front of me with a kind of gravitational pull. I got in, since that was where I was headed and goddamn was it cold. I took a seat (crazy concept). Fifteen minutes later the bus opened its door and deposited me a few metres from the doors of my building, which themselves opened up to welcome me. I could not have got there quicker on the train, I could sit down, and youths’ ipods were not arguing loudly modern music’s baselines’ rhythmic monotony. There was lovely scenery along the way, like St Patrick’s cathedral, and a human sold me a ticket for $2.30. [Thanks to Shadowplay over at Flickr for the wonderful image.] Continue reading “Buses: a mysterious dimension I stumbled into one day”

Walkin’ in the Valley of Death: Victoria St

Pays to be careful as a pedestrian in Abbotsford. This poor bugger was knocked down dead by a van back in May and died, and at 2.25 a.m. yesterday, some bloke standing near the corner of Nicholson and Victoria Sts gets dead after being hit by a white van. It’s an event a minute on Victoria St: someone was pulled over at 2.30 a.m. on 6 June 2006 with a vial of GBH. Of course he was not a local, but a burgher of that disreputable part of town on the other side of the river, Kew. There they found the big stash. And now it seems a Hoddle St servo got visited by those kids on the security video on tonight’s news, as recently as 23 June 2006. And these guys are like serial armed robbers man. You can rely on hearing it second on this blog.