David Gardiner - Transport

A busy, but enjoyable weekend

2011-09-18T21:01:00.001+09:30

It's been pretty full-on in the Gardiner household over the last couple of days. We've managed to pack car-shopping, basketball carnivals, entertaining friends for tea on Saturday, and Church, car-cleaning and visiting friends for an extended afternoon tea today on Sunday. Perfect Adelaide Spring weather certainly didn't hurt. It's nice to be sitting down Sunday evening to catch our breath before the work/school week begins again tomorrow!

Saturday morning, I left a bit earlier than normal to pick up my parents and head out to Nuriootpa (in the Barossa Valley) to check out a potential car to replace our trusty but outgrown Camry. The car in question is a 2010 Kia Sorrento Si (petrol). After test driving the current model the previous weekend I was impressed, though the price tag for the 2011 SLi diesel was a bit high for my budget (I felt a bit sad for the salesmen as their faces dropped when I informed them of that).

Searching around for used cars that didn't have too many kms on the clock had turned up this particular specimen. The challenge would be driving up to check it out and still get back home in time to take the kids to basketball.

We made good time (thanks to the new Northern Expressway) and after a test-drive I agreed to purchase the vehicle (subject to a satisfactory mechanical inspection).

Just enough time to visit the Nuriootpa Bakery before racing back down to Adelaide.

The basketball carnival was good fun, but sadly the team I coach had to be content with just participating rather than winning. There were a few close games, but it wasn't to be.

No rest yet – then racing back home to get ready for some friends coming over for tea. With Narelle cooking up a storm, it was a very enjoyable evening. Her Crème caramels were a particular hit, with some people going to extraordinary lengths to pry out the last bit of toffee left in the bottom of the dishes.

Sunday morning, and off to Church. Then some time at home to do a bit of gardening and clean up another friend's car that we've been borrowing while she's been away on holidays.

Then just enough time to head around to some more friends who were celebrating a successful morning's participation in the City to Bay fun run. I think the kids (not to mention myself) thought we'd landed on our feet when we saw all the yummy things for afternoon tea. A wonderful, relaxed afternoon.

ps. If you're looking for a well used but reliable car, I plan to sell the Camry in a few weeks time.

A Sydney Wedding

2009-12-01T23:14:00.001+10:30

Narelle's cousin Katie was getting married in Sydney, so we bundled the family into a plane and headed over for the festivities.

I'd booked seats on Tiger Airways earlier in the year (taking advantage of particularly cheap tickets). One thing with Tiger is that everything besides a seat on the plane costs you extra. I paid for extra baggage allowance but decided not to shell out for the privilege of choosing allocated seats. There was a risk that Tiger's seat booking system might be so stupid that it could put the kids and the adults in completely separate seats, but I'm pleased to report that we ended up with decent seats all in the same row on both flights.

A few quibbles with Tiger – the PDF attachments they emailed me were blank. Fortunately I figured out that the attachment file name happened to be the confirmation number so you could still review the details by going to their Review Itinerary page. Their website also fails to mention the fact that they will carry prams for free (thanks to Margaret for finding that out).

I'm not sure if it's a measure of how trustworthy visitors to Sydney airport are, but you have to pay $4 to use a luggage cart – contrasted with Adelaide airport where the carts are free (and I'd suggest a better design too – 3 bags fit side-by-side which we couldn't do with the interstate model).

, who seemed to have the best price compared to some of the more familiar hire car companies. One thing I didn't find out until after submitting a hire request through their website was that they require a "CREDIT" credit card (ie. not a debit card) for security. So began a mad panic to try and obtain such a card in less that 2 weeks. Despite trying to ensure my credit union had all the paperwork required up front, it took a few days for them to ask me for a pay slip and then a group certificate. The Thursday of our departure arrived, but sadly the card did not (it was delivered the day before we got back home!) Thankfully Narelle's parents were also travelling on the same flight and were kind enough to use their card for the security (the actual payment could still be done on a debit card). Also in Sydney this company's office is actually within reasonable walking distance from the terminal. In peak hour if you don't have much luggage, walking may actually be faster than the free pickup they offer.

The car (a Toyota Camry Altise) was perfect for our needs, and we were able to just cram the kids into the back seat (with various booster/baby seats). Our own car is also a Camry (though a slightly older 1995 model) and by comparison I found the modern Altise quite responsive, a bit gruntier and with more headroom (something I tend to notice). Imagine my surprise to learn learn that the current model still has only a 4 cylinder engine. (And no, that picture is not a Camry!)

We took the opportunity to do a bit of sight seeing, and visited Ocean World at Manly. We all enjoyed looking at all the various exhibits – especially walking through the tunnel through the aquarium. Boy those teeth look sharp!

Having grown up in Adelaide, driving in a big city like Sydney is not my idea of fun. The traffic just seems crazy, and it all feels like there are just way too many cars trying to squeeze along lots of too-narrow roads (even though the roads are usually multi-lane). At least this visit we did pretty well finding our way around – Narelle's old NSW navigation skills came through with flying colours.

It was a nice holiday but it is good to be home again.

Famous again?

2009-03-21T11:25:00.001+10:30

My parents actually noticed this photo on the front cover of the “Belair line renewal” brochure (Broken link, was originally 210.247.132.180/alt-host../../assets/pdf_file/0003/36165/A4_brochure.pdf) (PDF), and then my son happened to notice the brochure and asked “Why are you in this photo Dad?”

Passengers boarding train at Blackwood Station (Broken link, was originally 210.247.132.180/alt-host../../assets/image/0005/36176/blackwood_08.jpg)

Have a close look at the tallish guy closest to the left of the train. Yes, I reckon that might be me! You may recall, as a regular train commuter this isn’t my first brush with fame. Moving to ABB Grain (who are on South Tce) I did stick with the Belair train for a while (hopping off at Unley Park station to transfer to a bus down King William Rd), but then realised that the 218 bus is generally quicker.

The Belair line is being fixed up this year, however it’s the only line that isn’t being electrified, which is just ridiculous. I’ve heard that “it’s tricky because the Belair line runs next to an existing freight line and also goes through some tunnels”. Give me a break! These are simple engineering problems that can easily be solved.

The Belair line has never been the same since the government sold off one of the lines to become a standard-gauge freight line. Reducing it to a single track has meant that trains now need to wait on sidings to pass each other, and as a consequence the trains virtually never run on time.

What I would love to see is they fix up the line, electrify and standardise the gauge and lease back the other line so that services could finally return to normal. That seems sensible and logical to me, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Google Transit for Adelaide

2008-12-02T21:55:00.001+10:30

I saw this mentioned on Australian IT today – if you open up Adelaide in Google Maps, you now get the option of listing directions by “public transit”.

So for example, if I wanted to get from “Westbourne Park to Glenelg”, just enter exactly that phrase and search, then click on the ‘public transit’ link

View Larger Map

As you can see from the map, it indicates the bus route (216), then you change to a tram (), then finally you walk (). The directions panel contains bus stop details and the service times.

Ever since I owned an Apple Newton MessagePad and more recently a few Windows Mobile devices I’ve had an idea for an application that would allow you to interactively find out when the next bus was, and tell me what time I would arrive home – taking into account that I used to catch two buses and a train to get home. Well it looks like Google has pretty much implemented that idea for me!

Fix it Pat (part 2)

2007-11-05T10:21:00.001+10:30

As we arrived at Church on Sunday, I was greeted by a number of people saying, "We saw you in the paper today!"

So while I didn't get a mention from Thursday's interview on the day, apparently my mug is in the paper edition, along with along with some of my comments (down under the Belair sub-heading).

To be fair to the Sunday Mail, they are being pretty open about the fact that they were the ones handing out the badges, and I think I've been quoted accurately, which is reassuring.

(Photo from Sunday Mail, 4th November 2007)

Fix it Pat

2007-11-02T11:13:00.001+10:30

Today at Blackwood Train station, I was interviewed by a Sunday Mail journalist.

Apparently they are running a campaign to encourage more investment in public transport, particularly after the problems the trains had yesterday with the computer system failing completely.

I didn't make the copy in the final article - oh well.

Looks like I will need to get Owen's autograph after all (he's the guy on the left). I was sitting just out of shot behind the guy standing up near the door on the right :-)