Assuming all regulatory bodies give the approval, Australia can expect a new domestic airline to be in operation by February next year. The airline will be owned and operated by Tiger Airways, which is 49% owned by leading international airline, Singapore Airlines. Another part owner is low-cost Irish airline, RyanAir.
These owners are not without their significance. RyanAir is an extremely successful low-cost airline in Europe and Tiger's model is based larged on their's. They already fly from Darwin to Singapore with fares as low as $8. They are also promising single figure flights for their broader domestic launch next year.
This seems to be good from a consumer point of view, though I am sure Qantas/JetStar and Virgin Blue aren't especially happy about it. Personally, I do think there is room for another low-cost airline. People are keenly taking up flights, on major routes at least, and to get some of the cheaper airfares, a customer really has to fly quite early in the morning and on days less popular.
Hopefully an extra domestic airline means we can fly whenever we want for a very low price. I do hope that single figure fares at the time of the Tiger launch don't quickly make way for middle of the road priced fares. I also hope Tiger flies into Tullamarine in Melbourne from Sydney as Virgin Blue does and not into Avalon as Jetstar does. It will be interesting to see how things progress!
Spent the weekend in Melbourne - will have some pictures up this weekend.
We stayed in a suburb in Newport, which is next to the lovely suburb of Williamstown. It is on the bay across from St Kilda and a pretty short train trip from the city. The weather was warm and we took quite a lovely walk round the bay to the Williamstown shopping precinct today. Very enjoyable.
The weekend also entailed visits to Collingwood, the city, Brunswick and North Melbourne. Lots of pubs were visited as we were playing gigs down there, but this meant not much time for shopping unfortunately.
I don't think I have ever had a bad trip down to Melbourne. In fact, over the six or seven trips they just keep getting better. It was nice to be going home, but it was a little sad to leave as well.
Stay tuned for pics in the upcoming days!
This was one of the most anticipated series of cricket for some time, what with England having won the Ashes a couple of years ago over there. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and as we got towards the end of the English tour, it really looked as though it was going to be a non event.
All of a sudden though, England has hit some form and Australia are having some trouble with their lineup. England at present aren't far off a win in the first final of the one day series against Australia, having beaten them recently and coming off a good win against New Zealand, who were looking okay themselves.
It is a good sign going into the world cup. The more teams in form, the better the cricket is going to be, but even before we get there, we are seeing some decent cricket now in this series. Australia really should have scored over 300 with Ponting and Hayden's starts. Mr Cricket (Mike Hussey) didn't go on like he normally does however and Australia were left with an average score at just over 250.
The two English players who have been talked up, but in my opinion, done very little - Collingwood and Bell, have made some runs and although Bell is out, Flintoff is in and looking quite good, as he usually does. It isn't over, but whatever the result, it is good to see the English do something. We haven't seen it all summer!
There are a few websites going around these days offering deals for last minute accommodation within Australia and in other countries of the world.
I am going to Melbourne shortly, on tour with The Signals and need a hotel for myself and another. So, I have checked a few of the websites on the hunt for cheap, yet comfortable digs.
It is funny, it doesn't matter whether you go low stars or high stars, the prices seem to be around the same. With the high star apartments and hotels, you just save more.
I checked out Wotif.com, Lastminute.com.au and Needitnow.com.au.
I wasn't especially impressed with needitnow.com.au. In fact, I found nothing that fitted my budget. That is 100 bucks or less per night. Also, you weren't able to zoom in on the nights you actually wanted a place.
Lastminute.com.au is excellent and highlights the nights you are wanting to stay in town. I found one place I am definitely considering, at four stars 99 bucks per night. For two, that means 50 bucks.
Wotif.com is the most well known of these websites, and caters for travellers in a number of nations, not just Australia. They have a good amount of hotels and I found another four star place at 100 bucks per night.
Both wotif and lastminute's options are close. My low budget limited me somewhat, but I found lastminute the most user friendly, though I am yet to get to the booking stage.
All that having been said, I do find this type of method for booking hotels or apartments, a good option, where the consumer doesn't have to put up with the high prices these places set as their standard rates.
If it was up to me there would be cricket in some form on TV every single day. Whether it was state cricket or an international game, having some cricket on in the background every day would make my life close to complete. (Yes I'm exagerating). But you get the point...
There isn't any cricket on today, but I decided to take a break from what I am doing and check out some tennis. I can't stand tennis, but for some reason I sometimes find myself punishing my senses by watching it. It is the most tedious boring sports to watch, it really is.
I think one of my main gripes with it is this insistence on the crowd being quiet during a point. Why is it that sports people of all kinds can play with a constantly screaming crowd, very often in a much more impressive fashion than tennis players, and yet tennis breaks an atmosphere every couple of minutes because of the precious natures of these racquet wielding folk?
Part of me thinks too, that if I was born in the day when grass was king, and the game used to involve actually rallies with volleying and not a thousand aces, I may not have hated it so much. There just isn't any lasting action though, it really is the sport for those with the shortest of attention spans.
So it is the Australian Tennis Open, and though I love sport, I don't care who wins.
On average I try to get down to Melbourne once a year. This time around it was less about shopping (lack of money) and more about just chilling out and enjoying the city. All in all it was a good little holiday, culminating in a great New Years Eve do.
Once again I couldn't espace from Melbourne people wanting to compare their city with Sydney, with so many saying Melbourne is better. I don't know what it is, whether it's Melbourne pride or insecurity, but they all feel the need to do it. My opinion is the cities are both good. I think Sydney is a great place, but I wouldn't head down to Melbourne if I didn't think it was great either.
In terms of record shops and bars, Melbourne does win hands down though. So many good side street locations you wouldn't expect to find a good venue or music shop. Public transport was great too - I got around for $13 for a whole week. Respect.
In terms of reggae, for which I was down there, I think Sydney is a little bit ahead of Melbourne right now. Something to do with it being a Summer sound I think.
Beer prices? Well Sydney wins there. For a pot (which is a middie) I was paying like $3.50, when a schoohner is only about 10 -30 cents more.
I do love how quiet Melbourne is too. I know it is a quiet time for the city anyway, but it just isn't as hectic pedestrian or vehicle wise.
Heading back in February to tour with the Signals if anyone is interested.
I was in Melbourne town for a holiday, but the focus was on New Years Eve with a DJ spot at a do called Night at the Hop @ the British Crown in Collingwood. This was the big day then.
Most of the day was spent sitting about playing records, with Gus (the bloke whose place I was staying at) and myself trying to figure out what to put in our set.
We headed into Collingwood, dumped our records and went looking for some food. We had a nice tour of the area, looking for a pub doing a counter meal. It seems that unless a pub was doing something big for the night, they were shut. A tip then: don't go looking for a counter meal on new years eve.
We ended up having a fish n chip dinner before heading back to the British Crown. A nice little pub and more importantly, some good people and great music. Genres ranged from soul and reggae to mod and 2-tone. Lots of young people into the music, which I would love to see in Sydney town. 3 am came around a bit too quickly. Gus played a great set mainly of Northern and I stuck to predominantly reggae, though I threw in some James Brown in tribute to the late great soul singer.
Big night last night. Headed out to dinner in the city - ended up at a Dumplings place and had some good noodles. Met up with friends of Gus and headed to Cherry Bar for soul. Cherry Bar is a little bar in a side alley in the city - somewhere. Can't remember the exact location. The soul was good early, but the dancefloor took a while to get moving. Pretty soon though much dancing was done.
Headed back to North Carlton with many beers under our belt. Sleep came pretty early to me having been up since 430 am.
Today we got up and went shopping. Collectors Corner was our first stop. I resisted buying for myself, but picked up a present. We then headed off to The City Hatters nears Flinders Station and then Off the Hip records where I bought another present for someone else. It is a really cool record shop located off Flinders Lane in this inconspicuous basement. Awesome location and cool 60s garage selection.
This arvo we headed to a mate's place in Winstonia for some more beer and a BBQ. Chillin'. Tonight we are heading off to the Espy in St Kilda to see our mate play in the band Area 7. Was once a fan, though tonight we are just going for support and the beer.
Still having good times.
First day of six in Melbourne. Arrived at 745 am after an okay flight, though it was a bit full of children for whatever reason. Crying and flying isn't cool.
By the time I arrived at my mate's place in Carlton North I'd racked up $70 worth of cab fairs. Both Melbourne and Sydney (particularly Melbourne) need to do something about the cost from airport to city.
After arriving I went for a coffee in Lygon St. This was followed by grocery shopping at Safeway (Woolworths). Getting back to Gus's place about ten, the beers were cracked. 10 am drinking is what it is about.
We watched Australia finish off the poms in the cricket before planning our night of out at Cherry Bar. Shopping tomorrow.
Enjoying my time already.
So I am going to Melbourne in under a week for a bit of a holiday/piss-up/hangout and this morning got to talking about the flying process. I have two record cases that I want to take on the plane because I would never trust them under the hold. I also have a suit I am wearing New Years Eve that I would like to take on board. I was just going to sit it on my lap, but was assured by my family that I would be forced to put it in the overhead compartment.
This really defeats the purpose of taking it on board because there is no doubt it will get crushed by people (yes those hated people again) and their desire to put stuff on my suit. So the other option is putting in my bag that will be checked-in, meaning it will have to be folded. I just can't win!
I am also in two minds about when I get there. I fly in pretty early - getting there about 8, which is too early to be picked up. I am on my own however so a taxi from Tullamarine to North Carlton will cost a fortune and yet if I take the sky bus, it will cost a small fortune too AND I will likely have to get a cab from the city anyway. Once again, dilemmas! I am going to have the same issue coming back as well.
While I am there I am pretty sorted. Free digs to sleep at is good. I don't know my way around very well though and that is always a worry, but I'm sure I will manage, having been to Melbourne plenty of times before.
Anyway, I am counting down and I am sure you'll hear plenty more about Melbourne in the next 2 weeks.
I booked my flights to Melbourne today for over the new year period. They only cost $180 and that included $11 for insurance and about $4 for the credit card transaction. One has to ask, why would anyone travel any other way, particularly between Sydney and Melbourne, when flights are just so cheap? Normally I would check a website like Flightcentre.com.au as it gives you the Jetstar, Virgin and Qantas flight details, but I thought this time I would just give the Virginblue site a go. There's no having to fly out to Avalon with Virgin like there is with Jetstar.
For starters I made sure I went on between 12 and 1 pm as it is happy hour. You never know, you may just pick up a real bargain.
Secondly, one must be willing to fly early in the morning, but for the reduction in price it is definitely worth it.
Finally, if you can, fly midweek. Because there are so many people flying down just for the weekend, it is cheaper to fly midweek. Coming home Tuesday made it significantly cheaper.
Looking at the cost of flights Vs the actual tax you pay on your flight and you realise two things. The airlines aren't making that much money on a single flight and the government tax you a heap. I'm not neccessarily against taxing what is a luxury and not an essential, but perhaps one flight per year should be tax free. I know business flyers are claiming their tax back, so it doesn't really even out either. But that's a rant for another time
Is Melbourne the home of Australian sport? Rugby League Officials seem to think so taking the State of Origin decider to Melbourne for the first time. Melbourne is the home of AFL, but it is also home to the Boxing Day Test Match and the recent Commonwealth Games. Perhaps this all began in 1956 with the Melbourne Olympics.
Melbourne IS sport mad. Compare how many people go to see AFL games on the weekend to how many attend Rugby League games in Sydney. Far more to the AFL even when the teams are performing dismally.
I suppose you can understand why the Rugby League Officials took the Origin to Melbourne, but looking at the crowd, it seemed mostly former New South Welshman and Queenslanders, not converted Victorians, but who knows.
The point of this blog is to show the passion of Melbourne. They do get out in the community, whether it be for sports or music or the arts. There is something about the city's people that makes it a vibrant place and definitely worth visiting.
Oracle of Delphi
KC Hill
Paladin
Craig Hill
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