Hours cutback ‘will mean club closures’

NEWS

Significant licensed venue closures would follow any State Government decision to scale back opening hours, an industry leader warns.

Valley Liquor Accord chairman Danny Blair told The Independent: “If it comes back to a 2am or 3am closure, you will see half the clubs in the Valley close down over the next 12 months.
“The young kids don’t come out to 1am. It’s a lot different from when I was young.” It would be a cultural shift for them if they had to come out earlier, said Mr Blair, who added that research had shown that it took two years before such a shift in behaviour became the norm.
Venues would not be able to survive until that happened. Mr Blair said: “We are waiting with bated breath for the parliamentary inquiry recommendations to come down on March 18.”
Asked to comment on recent mainstream media reports suggesting not only that the parliamentary inquiry recommendations would be for scaled-back hours and the compulsory introduction of tempered glass and patron scanners but that the government would adopt those measures, Mr Blair said: “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion.”
Industry insiders say that Premier Anna Bligh’s decision last year to let the existing 5am rules remain in force until mid-2010 had everything to do with the government not wishing to refund any of the millions of dollars paid by venues for staying open late, and nothing to do with her views on the matter.
Mr Blair said: “We would be opposed to any hours reduction.” He said there was no hard evidence to suggest that venues had more troubles with antisocial behaviour at 4am rather than at 3am. To the contrary, available evidence suggested that between 10pm and 1am was a more troublesome period and a 2am or 3am closure would do nothing to resolve that.
Mr Blair said an early closing would simply mean “we’ll flood the area with people” earlier in the night. “I have said repeatedly that the safest place in the Valley is to be inside a licensed venue with security.”
Mr Blair’s comments come as a separate lobby group Queensland Locked Out (QLO) has organised a protest rally outside Parliament House on March 11 against what it calls the Premier’s “temporary political fix of an earlier shut down of entertainment precincts”.
Rally organiser Zach Salar said it was time for the people “to stand up for their rights and stop being bullied by a government looking for the populace (sic) vote”.
“There are solutions to the issues confronting alcohol-related violence and it’s not taking away the rights of the majority and also reducing employment,” he said. “Harsher penalties, increasing police numbers in entertainment precincts and working with the licensees on the introduction of ID scanners is how the Bligh Government should be looking at rectifying these issues.
“Too often we have people like Anna Bligh who are short on statistics and other relevant data, who look for the emotional vote from mum and dad as a cheap way of staying in power.
“The QLO will show Bligh people’s power is alive and well when they rally outside the gates of Parliament against proposed plans to reduce licensees trading hours which cost the economy and many students and entertainment industry workers their livelihoods.”
The QLO is also organising a petition aimed at maximising the vote against the government at the next election if trading hours are reduced.

• For more information about the rally and petition, go to www.queenslandlockedout.com

It’s a mall speedway

NEWS

Rat-running motorists are using the new Chinatown Mall as a shortcut to the city, putting the lives of mall visitors at risk.

One local worker told The Independent that over a relatively short period last week, he saw four cars illegally drive up through the mall to turn citybound on Ann Street. Law-abiding drivers who are leaving Forwin’s Chinatown carpark exit on the western side of the mall (pictured above) and do the right thing by going down to the end and turning right onto one-way Wickham Street.
If they are heading up to the city, they then turn right on Warner Street behind McWhirters or on other streets to the north.
The illegal drivers, to save just a few minutes, turn right at the carpark exit, drive under the grand arch, the centrepiece of the new $8 million-plus mall makeover, and then turn right onto Ann Street. The Independent has been told that some of these drivers are reaching dangerous speeds in this manoeuvre as they clearly want to minimise the time taken for the illegal shortcut.
Local councillor David Hinchliffe (Central Ward) says barriers need to be erected immediately before someone gets hurt.
“My office has already counted more than 30 cars driving up and down the mall - and that’s just in one week. One of the cars even crashed into a seat. The most basic part of any mall design ought to be to make sure it is pedestrian-friendly.
"Pedestrians are being honked by motorists to get out of the way as they drive up the mall."
Cr Hinchliffe said he had raised the issue with Councillor Jane Prentice who oversaw the mall design. Her response had been: “Council’s malls section is reviewing arrangements that will maximise use of the mall and minimise unnecessary vehicle movements. In addition, the Feng Shui characteristics of the mall must be considered.”
Cr Hinchliffe told The Independent: “I can tell you now the pedestrians who are diving for cover as motorists tear up the mall aren’t impressed with its current Feng Shui!”

Many changes in decade ahead

NEWS


The next decade will hold many changes for the real estate industry, according to a survey of PRDnationwide agents.

Most PRDnationwide agents polled said there will be less face-to-face contact with agents, more reliance on technology and more international buyers thanks to travel times to Australia reducing.
PRDnationwide New Farm director Adam Gray said he believes the day of the small corner agency is dead. “I do believe agencies will get bigger and service larger areas,” he said. Mr Gray said video will play a much bigger part in the selling process.
"We will be putting a cinema in our building to showcase off-the-plan projects. We already have the room designed and are waiting for the price of technology of creating the programs to drop - they are nearly affordable now,” he said.
“By 2020 we are likely to have planes that can fly from around the world to Australia within five hours. Richard Branson is suggesting this could happen in five years.
“When this happens, Australia will be the flavour of the world. Instead of having 20 million people buying property in Australia we will have the potential of seven billion. I have seen what happened in Turkey when the Germans and English decided they wanted to holiday there. Watch what happens here,” he said.
PRDnationwide Ballina/Lennox Head sales consultant Brett Jones said during the next ten years the roles of agents will change in a massive way.
“With search engines and social networking controlling the buyers, the agent’s role will be to control and manage the listings in more intense way,” he said. “There will be fewer agents with larger areas to cover,” he said.
Mr Jones believes instead of town based agents it will be region-based agents. There would also be much less face-to-face time with buyers.
“Generation Y will look to get more out of an agent with less face to face communication. Social networking and instant communication will be a key in the industry,” he said.
“We are seeing currently business on Facebook or Twitter - this is just the beginning of a huge change of things ahead.”
PRDnationwide Mudgeeraba agent Karl Grossman said while real estate will always be a people business, agents will need to become more specialised.
“Buyers will have more information available to them through the internet so they will expect an agent to be more knowledgeable about the product they are selling,” he said.
“Online social networking tools will be very important in some markets for prospecting, but not all.”

Teneriffe festival on way

NEWS

The recent awarding of “suburb” status to leafy Teneriffe is to be celebrated soon with the inaugural Teneriffe Festival.

Some vigorous and enthusiastic local steering committee meetings have begun planning for the celebrations – after all, it took a very long time and a lot of local agitation before the suburban status was finally given.
The Indie is told the committee membership is collectively very representative and impressive. And although it’s still very early days, July 3 has been earmarked for the inaugural Teneriffe Festival. We’ll keep readers informed as plans for the big event unfold. But in the meantime, keep Saturday July 3 free!

This grand old dame continues to radiate class

Radiance by Louis Nowra
Directed by Jo Peirce
Brisbane Arts Theatre SEASON OVER

Brisbane Arts Theatre looks good for a 74 year old. As Brisbane’s longest running independent theatre BAT has “re-invigoration” as its overriding theme for 2010. With an impressive program of Australian and international plays, BAT is focused and forging ahead with artistic director John Boyce at the helm.
And Radiance is a wonderful mix of mystery, anticipation and pathos. Already a hit on film, Radiance is a series of interconnected stories, focused on three sisters. Each sister gradually reveals their shadows selves or ghosts in the midst of grieving their recently deceased mother.
Radiance is beautifully translated to stage by director Jo Pierce. The opening scene was superb. Georgia McBride-Levi entered the performance space with slow reverent steps while completely focused on the empty chair where her mother had died.
The vision of ghostly presence was conjured so thoroughly by her constant gaze and slow prowling that I felt as though I was at a séance about to meet the departed. McBride-Levi as Mae was the strong constant presence for me throughout the play.
She was the linchpin that held the play together. Her thorough immersion in character was balanced beautifully by the irrepressible Louvel Yapali-Purcival as Nona.
Yapali-Purcival provided the kinetic energy that motivated and at times pushed for a more connected narrative. There were some silences that required quick dialogue to cover and Nona was the life line. She was perfectly cast by Jo Peirce who spent months researching before choosing her three actors.
Josifini Hawkins as Cressy was the most “elusive” sister who had the motherload of secrets to eventually reveal.
What a theatre! I love the age and patina of the place, truly a Brisbane icon. It is both proudly vintage and hopefully youthful.
BAT continues to breathe still more life and inspiration into the Brisbane theatre landscape. And BAT does harbour ghosts of the most gentle kind that do not require fire to exorcise them.

Lynette Shanahan

Some big names, some lesser ones, shine in Sydney

WINE ... with David Bray

Some well-known names triumphed in the 2010 Sydney International Wine Competition, and so did some lesser-known ones. Regular and attentive readers will be aware of this reporter’s admiration for the competition, which is unique in that the final round of judging is run with appropriate food.
Competition director Warren Mason says this “offers a realistic consumer guide for matching appropriate wines to diverse food dishes”.
“The competition’s main aim is to encourage consumers to make up their own minds about which wines to choose. It’s built around helping consumers make considered choices, to take full advantage of the vast array of wine styles that are available and to choose what to drink with a given dish with a purpose in mind. We aim to help them become their own, informed sommelier.”
We don’t usually give much mention to show results, but reckon this one is different enough to give space to.
Some of the highlights of this year’s results: First, a couple of trophies of special significance to me and no doubt many among you, the best value: d’Arenberg The Dry Dam riesling 2008 was judged best value dry white and Fox Creek Red Baron shiraz 2008 (pictured above) best value dry red.
The trophy for most successful winery or brand went to Westend Estate Wines, Griffith. Westend took out nine awards from 20 wines entered. Considering only 15 per cent of all entries receive any award, this was a remarkable achievement.
Three red wine trophies went to the Young area in the Hilltops region, Central NSW. Considering Hilltops has only three boutique wineries plus about another five growers, this was a remarkable achievement.
Look for Grove Estate and Moppity Vineyards. Peter and Margaret Lehmann’s Margaret Barossa Semillon 2004 took out the Joy Lake Memorial championship trophy for best wine of competition for the second time in three years. A wood matured semillon from the Barossa! (Please note that your traditionally trained reporter does not use the exclamation mark, ever!)

The white wine winners: Delatite riesling 2008 was best aromatic wine (One judge’s comment: “Pale straw colour. Honeysuckle and tropical fruit salad on the nose. Spicy tropical fruit on the palate. A nice refined palate which was not overblown. It had good cleansing acidity. Those riper tropical notes seemed more obvious with the food.’) Continuing the winning list: Vavasour Awatere Valley sauvignon blanc 2009 best savvy, Saddlers Creek classic Hunter semillon 2005 best lighter bodied dry white, that Peter Lehmann Margaret Barossa semillon best medium bodied dry white, Sacred Hill Rifleman’s chardonnay 2007 and Serafino reserve chardonnay 2009 equal best fuller bodied dry white.

The red winners: Angove Nine Vines grenache shiraz rose 2009 was best still rose, Gibbston Valley reserve pinot noir 2008 best pinot noir, Grove Estate Cellar Block shiraz viognier 2008 best lighter bodied dry red, Moppity Vineyards reserve shiraz 2008 best medium bodied dry red, Sticks No 29 shiraz 2008 best fuller bodied red.(One judge’s comment: “Very deep cherry purple colour. Very clean fruit aromas. Some liquorice and vanilla oak. A warm, generous palate. Quite savoury. Balanced acid and very tight, ripe tannin. Good length. The food highlights the finesse, the length, the sleekness and the smoothness.”)

Sparkling and sweet: Konrad Sigrun Noble Two riesling 2007 best dessert wine, Morris Wines Old Premium liqueur tokay best fortified, Jacob’s Creek sparkling moscato nv best Australian sparkling wine aperitif style. All 2010 results have been published on the competition’s website – www.top100wines.com – with individual judges’ comments for each award winner and recipes of all the food dishes presented. Well worth a visit.

STAR SIGNS .. with Horace Cope

PISCES (Feb 20 to Mar 20)
You are aghast to discover some so-called friends have posted a string of anecdotes about your outrageous drinking exploits on the social networking site, Offyourfacebook.

ARIES (Mar 21 to Apr 20)
A sudden power blackout has you and your partner looking at your own reflections in your TV screen while watching an episode of The Biggest Loser: Couples.

TAURUS (Apr 21 to May 20)
You and your spouse are rushed to hospital in an awful tangle after foolishly trying to spice up your sex life by attempting a juxtaposition.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 21)
You hadn’t realised just how on the nose Kevin Rudd was until you read the news pages of a couple of editions of The Australian.

CANCER (June 22 to July 23)
It didn't work in the long run for Peter Beattie, so you wonder why Kevin Rudd is trying the media tart's old "I've been a naughty boy and deserve to be spanked really, really hard for a really, really long time" routine.

LEO (July 24 to Aug 23)
You wonder how Channel 9 can promote Top Gear as Australia's No 1 TV show when it hasn't started yet.

VIRGO (Aug 24 to Sept 23)
You go to your local library to see whether this week’s book written by James Patterson has come in yet.

LIBRA (Sept 24 to Oct 23)
You fully support Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's belief that through a mixture of climate change and the city's emergence via the Clem 7 tunnel opening as one of the world's truly exciting cosmopolitan centres, Brisbane one day will host the Winter Olympics.

SCORPIO (Oct 24 to Nov 22)
Your stable and happy home life is shattered after a surprise weekend visit by the team from Domestic Pitz.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 to Dec 22)
Now that they have an extra digital channel to play with you can't help but notice how the free-to-air TV channels have jumped at the opportunity to promote oft-repeated shows with lines such as “First time on Seven2”.

CAPRICORN (Dec 23 to Jan 20)
On that note you are really grateful that federal communications minister Stephen Conroy gave the networks a $250 million cut in licence fees because it will allow them to invest in more cutting-edge shows like I Dream of Jeannie, The Flintstones and Bewitched.

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 to Feb 19)
It was a good idea for the BCC to throw an pen day and allow people to walk through the Clem7 tunnel, but you do think the council was being a bit tough by requiring you to carry an electronic toll tag.

Burton’s wonderfully wacky land

FILMS ... with Tim Milfull

Alice in Wonderland (PG)
Director: Tim Burton Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway
Rating: 4.5/5
109-minutes, screening from March 4

The only surprising thing about Tim Burton directing a version of Alice in Wonderland is that it has taken so long to come to fruition – but given the wondrous result, many will agree that it was well worth the wait.
Collaborating with Linda Woolverton – whose most famous credit to this point was a little film called The Lion King – Burton brings an interesting new twist to the Lewis Carroll tales Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, introducing us to a nineteen-year-old Alice (the latest Aussie to assault Hollywood, Mia Wasikowska), who is dreading the prospect of fulfilling her mother’s wishes to marry well.
After narrowly avoiding a marriage proposal, Alice tumbles down a rabbit-hole and promptly decides that since subsequent bizarre events must be a dream, she will maintain the firmest grip on what unfolds. And as all fans of the novels will appreciate, these are most bizarre and curious events indeed: diminutive but very wide twins (played by Little Britain’s Matt Lucas); a randomly appearing Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) mellifluous in voice, attitude, and manoeuvre; a curmudgeonly caterpillar (Alan Rickman); an insanely jealous and self-interested Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her absent-minded sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway); and finally, the delightfully unpredictable Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp).
The preview I saw was in Real-3D, and made Avatar look almost primitive, which says much considering how much I enjoyed James Cameron’s film. If I had any complaint, it would be to slam Danny Elfman’s choice of Avril Lavigne to sing over the closing credits; then again, Alice in Wonderland wasn’t really made for me but for tweens and teens – I won’t hold it against him.





Director’s debut proves firth-class

A Single Man (M)
Director: Tom Ford Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore
Rating: 4/5
99-minutes, now screening

Tom Ford might be more recognisable to some people as a fashion photographer and designer of clothing and fragrances, but this very successful creative recently branched out into cinema, adapting, directing, and producing a film version of Christopher Isherwood’s seminal sixties novel, A Single Man.
Ignoring some not so quiet whispers mentioning the words “vanity project”, Ford chose to finance the entire project himself, and the aesthetics of his quite beautiful film hint at the influence of two very influential art-house directors: Hong Kong’s Wong Kar Wai and Pedro Almodovar from Spain.
In his film, Ford slots Colin Firth firmly into the role of George, a forty-something college professor quietly mourning the death of his long-term lover, Jim (Matthew Goode). As the movie opens, George is going methodically through the motions of preparing for his last day on Earth, and all the while, friends, acquaintances, and new temptations skip in and out of his life.
This simple premise – the novel was less than two-hundred pages – unfolds into a fascinating examination of one man’s grief and the single-minded remedy that he thinks will offer relief, or at least oblivion. Ford’s visual aesthetic echoes those of Wong Kar Wai – with delicate slo-mo and grainy flashbacks – and Almodovar’s vivid palette, but Ford stamps his own mark on the film, with impeccable fashion and architecture complementing excellent performances from Firth, Moore and others.
This lush, achingly tragic story presses all the right buttons, and has me hoping that Ford found the experience of making A Single Man rewarding enough to step behind the camera again.



France flavour of the month at Palace

Alliance Française French Film Festival 2010 – March 17 to 31
More details at www.palacecinemas.com.au

Some festival news this week, with the Alliance Française French Film Festival touring through Brisbane in the latter half of March. Before the traditional after-party at Palace Centro on James St, the AFFFF will screen Micmacs, the latest film from magic realist director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and from all reports this new effort is a melange of his earlier works, Delicatessen and Amelie, which really says a great deal.
I managed to catch several previews, including Army of Crime – a dramatic true story about Jewish members of the Resistance wreaking havoc on the Nazi occupation of France. There’s also a raft of romantic films, from Sophie Marceau as a mother struggling with her hormonal teenager daughter in LOL, and some very satisfying personal growth in Queen to Play, featuring chess manoeuvres by Sandrine Bonnaire as Helene, a cleaning lady working for misanthropic expat, Dr Kroger (Kevin Kline).
Lovers of family drama will lap up the dynamics of The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, while those who like thrillers will appreciate the tense Skirt Day, an impressively cast hostage drama set in a classroom. Finally, I could barely contain myself when I heard that the impossibly handsome Jean Dujardin would be stepping back into the shoes of French superspy, OSS 117 – aka Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath – as he heads off on the hunt for Nazis on the run around Brazil in the very silly OSS 117, Lost in Brazil.(pictured)
There are many more films on offer – check out the festival’s program on www.palacecinemas.com.au

Patriotism always precedes a poll in Terror Australis

POLITICS ... with Mungo MacCallum

It's election year, so our politicians are all getting really patriotic. They love their sunburnt country, the sweeping plains, the ragged mountain ranges. The droughts and flooding rains aren’t bad either, providing multiple photo opportunities and the chance to look compassionate while handing out the bribe money. The far horizons, the jewel seas – yes, the environment’s a political must. And of course there’s the beauty; but then there’s the terror.

Ah, yes, the terror. There’s something we can really get patriotic about. Kevin Rudd did so last week with a statement which was dismissed by some in the opposition as merely a distraction from pink batts, themselves no more than a sideshow, albeit one to which we shall return. But in fact the opposition had been demanding it for quite a while, and would have complained loudly if it had been delayed.
The white paper had been commissioned back in 2008, after the Mumbai attacks, so it could have been expected to be rather more substantial than it was; its essential message was that there was a fair bit of terrorism about, and that the government was against it.
And so was the opposition, insisted Tony Abbott in a rare moment of bipartisanship. But he was more against it than the government, so there. Terrorism, we were warned portentously, had emerged as a permanent feature of Australia’s security environment. Well, in an election year it would, wouldn’t it? But here is the switcheroo: it’s not just suicide bombers, and it’s not just from overseas.
Now the danger is far wider, and the perpetrators are likely to be amongst us – not just maddened jihadists, but the absolute scum of the earth, the vilest form of people on the planet, traders in human misery who should rot in hell– yes, people smugglers.
In a spectacular piece of political sleight of hand, Rudd has conflated the threat to national security posed by organisations such as Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah with the challenge to border security posed by asylum seekers in boats. Yes, really; our top counter-intelligence agency, ASIO, is now to be unleashed against the wretched of the earth. ASIO, it will be recalled, was originally set up to investigate the espionage activities of foreign interests in Australia.
Over the years it was expanded to deal with what was loosely described as internal subversion, which generally meant lefties. In intellectual circles in the 60s and 70s, not to have an ASIO file was to be seriously socially disadvantaged. But the essential criterion remained: ASIO dealt with perceived threats to the nation's security.
It was expressly forbidden from investigating criminal activities, or if it ran across any by accident, from passing the information on to the police forces. Now Rudd has broadened its powers dramatically; ASIO and the other spy agencies will target the people smugglers and their accomplices, both in Australia and overseas, with the aim of securing criminal convictions under new and draconian laws.
This will be time consuming and expensive, so yet again the ASIO budget will be increased, as it has been every year since the organisation's formation in 1945. The political aim is to show, yet again, that Labor can be just as tough on border security as the coalition, and to take the heat off the accusation that the government has lost control of the influx of boat people. And who knows, it might even reduce the numbers a bit – although that would be an unexpected bonus. As long as the policy generates the right headlines it will be seen as a success. And so far it has; even The Australian’s Greg Sheridan gave it an A plus, thus proving it can satisfy even the most devout paranoiac in the industry.
It did not, however, satisfy the Liberal senator Simon Birmingham, who called it a diversion: “The greatest threat to the safety of many Australian families over the last 12 months has been the home insulation program and Peter Garrett’s mismanagement of it and tragically that's an ongoing threat to safety,” he proclaimed and was promptly slapped down by his leader.
This was a bit unfair; after all, it was Abbott who had talked of Garrett being charged with manslaughter, and who had hammered away at him for three parliamentary weeks to the exclusion of any other topic. Clearly he was not against a touch of hyperbole if there was political mileage in it. But that particular juggernaut had obviously ground to a halt.
Garrett’s defence had held up surprisingly well. The opposition had thought it had finally found a smoking gun in the Minter-Ellison risk assessment report, which had been stuck in the bureaucracy for none months; the fact that Garrett had not even been shown it smacked of serious maladministration. But it turned out that the report was a pretty Mickey Mouse affair, just one of a number of sources the department had received and its serious recommendations had already been acted on. And most importantly, in spite of what the opposition and the media had claimed, it had not warned of deaths, fires and other disasters at all.
Ironically the main warnings had been about the political problems associated with the scheme, and these had proved all too correct. As Rudd finally admitted, the program had been implemented ineffectively and a fair bit had gone wrong. He took personal responsibility and would go about setting things right. By the end of the week Garrett was off the hook and was even being applauded in the party room. He had lost some of his old portfolio, but he remained a cabinet minister.
By any normal measure he’s still a winner. Rudd’s position is more equivocal: if Garrett was worth supporting and preserving, why was he demoted? It proved a point Abbott, as a veteran of the Howard years, should have known: ministers are sacked not because of negligence or incompetence, but because they have become political embarrassment; when the cost of losing them becomes less than the cost of hanging on.
Rudd did not believe Garrett had reached that point so end of story – for now. But Garrett has been shown to be vulnerable. The opposition will not give up the chase, and could have better luck next time.

Tom’s no longer dyeing to see us

FROM MY CORNER with Ann Brunswick

Skipping through the pages of a newspaper colour magazine a week or so ago my eyes fell upon an ad for the concert tour of one my favourite entertainers. Yes, Tom Jones was heading Down Under to belt out a few tunes in his inimitable way.

The advertisement that caught my eye contained a nice big photo of him singing his heart out. But wait, there was something different about him in the photo. Just what was it? It soon came to me. It was his hair. Gone was the jet black curly locks we have all come to know and love. In their place was a distinguished grey shock. Good on you Tom. What a way to mark your 70th year than to throw away the dye bottle.
Please take note Clive Palmer and Rupert Murdoch, do you really think you look good with jet-black and orange hair respectively? And at your ages? Proving he can age gracefully is why I was shamelessly at Tom’s concert on Sunday, throwing my y-fronts onto his stage.

***
Pedalling my Malvern Star along the Coronation Drive bikeway at the weekend, it struck me how little imagination goes into major construction projects that have a big impact on our urban built environment. This column has previously noted the appalling ugliness of the busways now snaking around our inner-city, especially the monstrosity one outside the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
Then there was the time we addressed blights on the landscape that are the air ventilation towers at either end of the Clem 7 tunnel. The supposed “jacaranda” and “poinciana” colour schemes of the irretrievably ugly stacks are irrefutable evidence of the total lack of imagination among those “experts” charges with “planning” our city’s future. But back to the bikeway.
It was after passing under the William Jolly Bridge my eyes saw what is now the almost completed bridge linking Hale Street on the northside to West End. But what to my mind is disappointing is the fact the new bridge looks a lot like a smaller version of the Gateway Bridge, which looks a lot like a large version of the Captain Cook Bridge, which in turn resembles a slightly inflated version of the Victoria Bridge.
Get my point? Does it really take much to add some imagination to the equation when planning this sort of infrastructure?

***
During the week it occurred to me that my annual household insurance premium had risen rather dramatically. Well, someone has to rebuild insurance company profits after the global economic crisis. Unfortunately it’s policyholders.
All of us are, after all, somewhat inoculated against annual rises in all sorts of bills. But this year my insurer jacked up my premium sufficiently for me to fire up my internet connection and start surfing for alternatives.
My first port of call was one of those newer entrants into the insurance market who heavily promote their internet presence.
So, after the best part of 20 minutes electronically ticking boxes, choosing options, insurance cover levels, and filling in responses to all sorts of questions, it finally came time to enter details of my street and postal addresses. Initially the site refused to recognise my street address and postal address, which is a PO box.
Finally, after several tries it graciously accepted my street address, but still refused to recognise my PO box. That meant it was not possible to complete my online premium quote. So a quick email to the insurer was fired off and, to give them credit, a response came back pretty soon the next day. It turns out their online quotation system doesn’t allow you to use a post office box for a postal address. But, they told me, it was possible to ring one of their consultants and tell them my details and receive a quote over the phone. Sort of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?

***
Can someone please explain this to me? Trying to do the right thing by the environment, your favourite columnist has left the Land Rover at home and caught a train north from Fortitude Valley station a few recent afternoons to service a northside client. What’s the problem with that, I hear you ask.
Just this. I’ve gotten onto both Caboolture and Petrie bound trains at around 3.30pm and they’ve been standing room only! This is mid afternoon! Or do all public servants in the city flex off early nowadays? Luckily, some sweet young thing generally offers me their seat because of my obvious condition, but it has me wondering: what do these north-bound services look like at peak hour? One of those Indian trains comes to mind, with dozens of hapless citizens perched on the roof!
Okay, so that’s a brickbat for overall CityRail planners, but here’s a bouquet for the staff of Fortitude Valley station itself. A reader tells me that on one recent afternoon on one of those really hot and sticky days we’ve had of late, staff at the station were seen handing out free bottles of water to over-heated commuters. Well done on that level! Now, if only QR could put on enough services and carriages so that commuters could reasonably expect a seat, at least outside peak hour, for what can be a fairly long journey then that would be great too.

• Got some gossip for Ann? Email her at: ann@theindependent.com.au