Another Happy Evening of Multiplaying Part V

[finbar]

Re: Finbar a lefty ???

Originally posted by Rasputin


Dont know Bardon (Barden ??) probably another Yuppie suburb. For real down to earth Left wing Labor voters , you need to come down to Logan and Woodridge, they get much lefter than that lot.

Turns out it's Bardon. It's the suburb next to Paddington as you head west from the city. Are you in (or near) Logan? That's where the mum of one of the producers I'm working with lives. Or maybe used to live. I forget.

Jeez, it's muggy up here, even in winter.

[Alexander's Horse]

What about the rest of us?

A cheerio would be nice, we miss you

[Hydey]

Horse is a God ???????????

How can it be that a dead horse from ancient Greece can become a Deity.

[Alexander's Horse]

Widen your outlook son

I think we have already established that there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy.

[finbar]

Re: What about the rest of us?

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
A cheerio would be nice, we miss you

And a big cheerio to all my Civ buddies in the Deep South - and, in Hydey's (aka the Mexican's) case, the Deep Deep South.

Okay, team, here's a lateral thinking puzzle for you all. It's taken from the first episode of this series I'm up here developing. (The series is 13 eps, set in a run-down motel in a small country town called Fat Cow. Each episode contains a lateral thinking puzzle that must be solved by the audience before the next week's episode)

Anyway, a man of about 70 is found dead in room 11 of the Fat Cow motel. He's lived there quietly and pretty anonymously for about 40 years. He didn't bother anyone, and no one bothered him. Evidence comes to light that it could, in fact, have been Buddy Holly. Amazingly, pubic hair taken from the dead man is DNA matched with DNA from Buddy Holly's surviving relatives in the States. So the man who died in the Fat Cow motel turns out, in fact, to have been Buddy Holly.

But Buddy Holly is known to have died in a light plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, in 1959. He's known to be buried in the town graveyard in Lubbock, Texas.

How then did he come to live for roughly 40 years in the Fat Cow motel?

(That - and similar - is what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks! )

[Alexander's Horse]

brain is full

Thanks for the cheerio - Hydey was starting to fret and then the bedwetting would start......the rubber sheets....let's not go into that.

Buddy Holly had an identical twin? Go figure.

And don't expect me to ring in with my answer at $2 a minute.

[Hydey]

$4.95 per minute , higher from mobiles

A mad scientist dug up Buddy Holly and then cloned him or then again it may have been the great Deity , Alexander's Horse breather life into his dead body.

Enough crap, hurry up finbar and go home so we can play some civ.

[finbar]

Dummies!

Come off it, guys, you're thinking literally. Think laterally!

Hey Horse. I'm also working on the political thing for the ABC while I'm up here. At night. So much for sleep. What sort of reputation does the suburb of Wodan have in Canberra? What does it mean to Canberrans? What's it known for?

[Hydey]

Widen your outlook Dad

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
I think we have already established that there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy.

Keep trying Horse and one day you will come close to understanding my philosophy. If you can ,you may gain the courage to have one of your own, instead of following the fools you do.

[Alexander's Horse]

Woden sucks

Woden is a district not a suburb. Only what is called the town centre is Woden suburb, but the surrounding suburbs are also called Woden, "I live in Woden, at Pearce" for example. The district is also known more commonly here as the Woden Valley.

What can I say about it? The real estate agents say its the "geographical heart of Canberra"

Its probably best known for lots of suburbs built in the sixties and seventies full of what are now called "ex-govie" houses, mostly off the plan brick veneer jobs with crappy aluminium windows and no decent heating. These houses are really pokey in their native state but because of the geographical advantages, "one bus to parliament and civic" (Canberra's CBD) as the agents say, its rapidly gentrified. People are renovating houses all over the place, the population is ageing.

Southside, families mostly live further out where I am, in the Tuggeranong Valley, also known as "nappy valley". Tuggeranong has the highest concentration of children under 5 in Australia, the lowest number of old people and the highest number intact nuclear families!! But please don't take the piss out of tuggers, we suffer enough from those ageing baby boomer c#nts in Woden

That help? This is a very weird city. But we like it.

If you're still writing that, I've been meaning to mention Howard is having trouble attracting even secretarial staff for his office. Twice in 3 weeks we've had a notice come around seeking expressions of interest to work in the PM's office as a personal assistant. That's very unusual. Usually you have to know someone inside to get a job in the PM's office. They are usually highly prized jobs. The last notice almost said "immediate start" Somebody, anybody?

Public servants notice things like that, as someone said to me, "this government is starting to get the smell of death about it." They are hated down here as you know because they blame us for everything, cut the public service to buggery, removed our permanence and rubbished our professionalism. Fine, you want to play it that way? We can play it that way too

The public service has its revenge by leaking everything, especially when their ministers are in trouble - every one that has resigned has had a little help from a judicious leak; and by making Canberra a very very lonely town for a government MP. We Canberrans delight in making them feel unwelcome, its almost become a new town sport.

Mostly they just get the cold shoulder but I have personally given the finger salute to De-Anne Kelly and David Kemp, who is in charge of the public service. He pulled up next to me in his chauffeur driven comcar at the lights on the way to work one day and smiled at me, so I gave him the finger and mouthed a "f#ck you" for his trouble. They always pretend it never happened, I guess its like sexual assault for a polly - its a dark secret, they are in denial, they can't admit to being unpopular, even in a town they loathe

F#ck em, its personal, they hate us so we hate them and this is Australia so you can do stuff like that when you're on your own time. Howard won't even live here, which a lot of people took as a personal snub. It wasn't always like this - Menzies was really the father of the Canberra. But governments come and go, we will still be here in the end. I think people here know that - but we hate how unpopular Canberra has become. It used to be a source of national pride, a great nation building project like the Snowy scheme. We blame the pollies for the Canberra bashing, but particularly this government for not defending the place.

[finbar]

Good stuff, Horse, thanks for all that. So is there actually a Woden Plaza? Like a shopping centre bit?

I'll give you the context. In the first ep, my Labor pollie character is forced to stand down as Spokesman for Aged Care because of branch-stacking allegations. Later in the ep, he gets a message from his Deep Throat in the Aged Care department about a cover-up that's going on. I've got them meeting at Woden Plaza - on the basis that no one with any brains goes to Woden unless they can really help it, thus it's the ideal place to go when you don't want to be seen. Any better suggestions?

I'll send you down the first ep to read if you like when I get a chance.

[Alexander's Horse]

Everything's at Woden Plaza (not)

Yes there is such a place as Woden Plaza but it is the last place they would meet because the department of Family Services and Aged Care is based at Woden, right next to Woden Plaza! The public servants go there for lunch and shop there.

I suggest you might want to use Riverside Plaza over the border at Queanbeyan (or "struggle town" as its known here). There are no fed govt offices at Queanbeyan, all the Canberra town centres have fed offices next to their shopping malls.

Queanbeyan jokes are legion too - Canberrans see it as full of "stupid New South Wales people". The government sees it as the start of those retarded "rural and regional" Australians that it pretends to love but secretly despises because they've spent so much money trying to buy their votes and many of them are still voting for Hanson. Eden Monaro, of which Queanbeyan is the largest centre, is a very marginal seat and has always fallen to an incoming government.

Another bit of local knowledge possibly worth working in to an episode is the Labor heavies meet regularly at a Chinese restaurant called the Ming Dynasty at Kington. Lots of jokes about that too - like you wouldn't want to be sitting between Beazely and Robert Ray if the fried rice was bowl was in front of you on the table. There's another drinking hangout at Kingston called the Holy Grail where both sides congregate. It got some publicity recently when Chris Pyne claimed in parliament he had been threatened there by Wayne Swan and another Labor MP over the parliamentary inquiry into Queensland electoral rorts.

I'm happy to look at the first ep if you like - but I want a credit

[finbar]

Good-oh, thanks for all that. Better not use Woden. And, as it happens, we're using the Holy Grail.

Can't promise a credit.

[Rasputin]

Re: How did you end up in Queensland?

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Raz is a sandgroper?

well i guess technically not, I was dragged kicking and screaming from England as a 9 month old baby to WA, then spent 30 years there before moving over here to QLd for work promotion ...

[Rasputin]

Re: Re: Finbar a lefty ???

Originally posted by finbar


Turns out it's Bardon. It's the suburb next to Paddington as you head west from the city. Are you in (or near) Logan? That's where the mum of one of the producers I'm working with lives. Or maybe used to live. I forget.

Jeez, it's muggy up here, even in winter.

oh ok, dont head to far west you will hit Ipswich, very bad !!!

Not in logan no. I am in hte last part of brisbane city before Logan, cant got any further south than me beofre leaving the city...

Not muggy at all.. you should come backin summer

And arent you enjoying the lovely sunny days