Notices by Tim Richards (timrichards@aus.social)

@skinnylatte Great city, but Jesus Christ it's expensive there. Too stressful without a huge salary IMO.

Fascist march just went by on Elizabeth Street. Not much of a crowd, police numbers were probably about 15% of the crowd numbers. Silly deluded people with their silly red versions of the flag.

#auspol

Amazing that protesters are *still* banging on about the pandemic lockdowns. It was half a decade ago mate, let it go.

#auspol

@skinnylatte I'm very much including management in this. Awful concept.

The "996" work concept is so ridiculous - a classic case of valuing quantity over quality, when it should be the other way round.

And it you really did work 72-hour weeks and were able to retire early, what would you do? You'd have had no time to develop interests or friendships along the way.

#work

I'm having fun today writing about the Galicja train from Berlin to Krakow. I was delighted in my research to find the dining car's menu online. What would your order for lunch onboard?

https://wars.pl/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Menu-EIP-EIC-135x270-PL-MAJ-2025.pdf

#Poland #Germany #PKP #train #trains cc @diningcar

Pretty comprehensive welcome here at Fairfield Library.

#Melbourne #library #libraries

Walked from the CBD to North Melbourne, to enjoy a halloumi wrap and a bottle of kombucha while sitting in the sunshine. Wild times.

I see I'm not the only person with this general idea. You can divine immediately one of the benefits of working from home on a sunny day.

#Melbourne

Bought some tiger rolls from a Vietnamese bakery on Smith Street on my way to Fitzroy Library. They look good.

There's a thought... do other Western countries have Vietnamese bakeries, or is it just a Vietnamese-Aussie thing? I mean with baked goods, not just making banh mi.

#vietnamese #Melbourne #bakery cc @skinnylatte

Here's my article about travelling across Europe by train from London to Istanbul with a Eurail pass, which appeared first in print on Sunday. Epic rail journey!

https://www.theage.com.au/traveller/inspiration/i-travelled-across-the-breadth-of-europe-on-trains-over-six-weeks-20250729-p5mis5.html

#train #trains #Europe #Eurail #rail #travel

Re my trans-Europe train article - I just discovered this nice bit of feedback from this person who runs writing courses, so that lifted my day. :)

https://www.loom.com/share/1ba789435d7b42708facd6e0d2a33909?sid=320770d2-e3ac-4113-89fa-c3e5df1c249d

#train #trains #TravelWriting #Writing

@skinnylatte Yeah, but still a fair bit. Do home owners in SG pay council rates too?

@skinnylatte So with that SG apartment, the residents will basically be paying $300 per week for 99 years to lease it. That is not very appealing.

Interesting piece about an old-school Chinese restaurant in Bendigo:

#chinese #food #bendigo #australia https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/melbourne-eating-out/with-no-one-to-take-over-australia-s-oldest-chinese-restaurant-is-closing-20250724-p5mhgr.html

@skinnylatte interesting read. Has alcohol become really expensive in San Francisco? Because it is really expensive here, partly because of taxes. I can understand young people not being able to afford it. And the soft drink options are always uninspiring.

Good to see. Hopefully the beginning of the end for that authoritarian creep Órban.
---
They tried to ban Pride. Instead, they got Hungary’s biggest anti-government protest in years

#Hungary #Pride https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/they-tried-to-ban-pride-they-got-hungary-s-biggest-anti-government-protest-in-years-20250629-p5mb1n.html

That would be my number one suggestion too - largely removing cars from the Melbourne CBD. It has often been done in European cities, it could work here as well.

"An underground network for moving goods and waste on conveyor belts, transforming empty shops into free spaces for artists and a car-free Hoddle Grid are among the 50 big ideas to emerge from a major summit discussing what Melbourne might look like in 2050."

#Melbourne https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-cbd-s-future-is-car-free-and-open-all-hours-say-these-big-thinkers-20250509-p5lxvh.html

Seeing we've just had a federal election, let me recommend this book I've been reading which explains how Australia over time developed the distinctive features of its voting system: including compulsory voting, preferential voting, widespread absent voting, independent electoral authorities, etc. Also how Australia very early on gave women the vote and invented the secret ballot. And of course how Saturday voting and the mighty democracy sausage came about!

Sounds like a dry topic but I found it fascinating; Judith Brett does a good job of showing us the personalities behind the various reforms each step of the way. Worth a read, especially if you've ever wondered why Australia's voting system is so unusual in many ways.

More details here: https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/from-secret-ballot-to-democracy-sausage-how-australia-got-compulsory-voting

#auspol #book #books #politics #Australia #history

I don't give a damn how nice Dutton is to his family and pets. This was a "leader" who never missed an opportunity to punch down or to throw minorities under the bus if he thought there was a vote in it. He had poisonous political instincts and it's a relief to see him gone.

(Yes we in Melbourne will never forget his "African gangs" comments. And attacking the Welcome to Country last week - after the topic was put on the agenda by a neo-Nazi - was a new low.)

#auspol https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/on-election-night-we-finally-saw-dutton-s-armour-crack-it-was-too-little-too-late-20250504-p5lwe1.html

Yeah I agree with this. If you've travelled all the way to Japan and find yourself eating McDonald's, you've made a bad life choice. I mean, it's not even good food in the West. Also, ramen!

#japan #food #travel https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/reviews-and-advice/mcdonald-s-in-japan-some-tourists-are-too-tasteless-to-travel-20250429-p5lv4k.html