Rants from Vas

The past decade has seen a substantial increase in rail freight in Australia. Capital investment like the Southern Sydney Freight Line and conversion of the Victorian North East line to 1435 mm standard gauge is paying off. Allied Pinnacle has a siding just south of Kensington station, and Southern Shorthaul Railroad (SSR) currently has the contract […]

Melbourne on new year’s day is a weird place. All sorts of shops, restaurants and bars are were closed. The entire Royal Arcade was closed for some reason. It’s like Melbourne still wants to believe it’s a quiet country town. Despite the crappy weather, there was plenty of foot traffic in the CBD, so a […]

I’m having serious doubts about my ability to survive the rest of the month in Hong Kong. The infamous heat and humidity haven’t caused me problems – that doesn’t seem much worse than Sydney in summer. It doesn’t seem to rain too heavily for too long at a time, so that aspect isn’t really any […]

There’s this awesome laksa place on Hunter Street in the city, or at least everyone tells me it’s awesome, so I really want to try it. So I walked to Hunter Street last Sunday, keen to try get my Malaysian fix, but when I got there at half past one the place was closed and […]

I had an inadvertent busking experience. I was playing my recorders at the park while the kids enjoyed the playground. It seemed like good use of the time, as it meant fresh air for everyone, exercise for the children, and music practice for me. As we were leaving, some young ladies came up and gave […]

So I got this message today: Hi Vas, We work closely with company and placed man and woman with you recently. I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. – name I’m like So you run job ads? That don’t impress-a-me much — So you sold us grunts, But can you find us stars? […]

My wife has banned me from hiring or buying Ford or Holden cars. Since Hertz gets busy around Christmas, they were booked out of Mercedes, Lexus and even the more interesting Toyotas. From what was left, I decided to hire a Ford G6E (it’s the replacement for the Fairlane, kind of like a luxury Falcon […]

The threads on 4chan All looked so lame He typed the CAPTCHA To post his flame The newfags ate it Replies came in That OP’s ego Swelled with the win! He’s saying I’m on a roll With all the trolls I know The copy-pasta Flies to and fro He’s saying I’m on a roll With […]

You know where Kings Cross becomes Potts Point, there’s a cop shop and a fountain, right? Well, even if you don’t, just try to imagine it, or get a picture from Google Street View. Anyway, as I was walking past this point on my way to the railway station this morning, these two dudes in […]

Last night on my way home from work, I found a CommSec debit MasterCard on the ground. It still had over a year before expiry, and there was a four-digit number in small handwriting in the corner of the signature panel. I picked it up, and as soon as I got home, I rang the […]