New Cafe etiquette?

Is there some new cafe etiquette I am unaware of?

This morning in the cafe at Robinsons Bookshop in Frankston my phone rang. It was an unexpected, quite urgent work related call.

Considering that I was with my six year old son, had no pen, had 3 or 4 bags of shopping and, most importantly had just been served a fresh long black, I chose to take the call and deal with it then and there. The cafe is at the rear of the bookshop and there was no way I could take the call outside, keep an eye on my son, drink my coffee and carry my shopping.

I spoke quietly and quickly and the whole thing was taken care of in 5 minutes. The barista was kind enough to lend me her pen.

After I hung up, a gentleman in the cafe berated me for having taken the call. In the manner that one does he assumed that all in the cafe (there were 5 in total) were as affronted and disgusted at my behaviour as he was. He then suggested I could have taken the call outside.

In a complete fail I did not respond with my normal grace charm and wit. I didn't ask whether he'd had too much coffee yet, not enough coffee yet, etc. I made a smartass comment about this not being a library. Not my best work.

Up until now my experience in cafes is that mobiles are allowed, even encouraged. The longer we spend in the cafe, the more we eat and drink. Cafes are vibrant active meeting places where people gather to chat, read, eat and drink.

So my question is: Is there a new etiquette regarding mobile phones? Are cafes off limits now for taking calls? Is there a critical mass of people in a cafe before one is allowed to make or take a call?

Was I rude?

an alternative to more speed cameras

In a further, futile attempt to balance the state's books, the Victorian Government is going to throw up more speed cameras. These revenue raising devices will continue to punish the evil people doing 104km/h on flat stretches of pristine freeway.

Of course a lot of people don't get booked by speed cameras as they know exactly where the fixed ones are, or at least they think they do. I travel daily on Eastlink and constantly witness people dabbing the brakes as they get to the Wellington Road Bridge. I'm pretty sure there's a fixed camera there.

Fortunately I have cruise control, and once I'm on 101km/h I set and forget.

So, on to an alternative to revenue raising speed cameras.

A lot has been said that modern cars feel a lot slower than cars did 10 or 15 years ago. 100km/h and most cars are idling along at 2000rpm or so. Not much wind noise and some decent tires make this a pedestrian ride.

Not only do the cars feel slower, but if you look at most speedometers in modern cars, 100km/h looks slow. In my Ford Territory, a family car, the speedo shows a potential maximum speed of 220km/h! That seems extraordinarily fast. More to the point, half way on the speedo is 110km/h, the maximum legal speed in Victoria. It looks a little like this:

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/speedometer-1.jpg

So when I'm driving at the maximum legal speed in Victoria the needle on the speedo is at 12 o'clock. When I'm travelling at my average speed (according to the trip computer) my speedo is at about 9 o'clock. The incremements between 40, 60, 80 and 100 are barely millimetres. 60 doesn't seem too far away from 40, even though it's 50% faster!

My solution is to reduce the maximum speed shown on the speedo on cars sold in Australia to 120km/h. Keep the dial spread as now so that the increments between the speeds are larger, thereby reinforcing the fact that the difference between 40km/h and 50km/h is substantial.

Something like this, except in km/h: http://www.freefoto.com/images/21/59/21_59_17_prev.jpg

The car would still be as quick, but surely the driver's perception would be that 60 isn't that slow, and 110 is almost off the scale?

Not a complete solution, I will admit, but maybe something to think about.

Marathon Man Day 2

Alarm 550 - snooze 6am!

Did a quicker run this morning but pretty much the same distance. Average speed was about 11.8km/h which is just below my target of 12km/h.

I figure I can run at 12km/h for 42 km which makes it a 3.5 hour marathon. That oughta do it.

I paid the price for being so neat and tidy this morning - both my pairs of good running socks were in the wash so I ran in the cheapies and got a blister. The blister of course was at it's worse when I was farthest from home.

Social run again tomorrow.

13km total this week so far.

Marathon Man Day 1

Got up at 550am!

Hardest part of running is getting out of bed.

Did my Gould Street jog - 6.44km in 45 mins according to http://gps.motionx.com/overview/.

Handy bit of kit on the iphone - allows me to upload my run and include times, distance and a google map.

It was a social run. I'm working on the peer pressure model.

try for 10km tomorrow. solo.

Marathon Man

On Sunday 11th October I will be running in the Melbourne Marathon.

I'm registered (race number 639).

I've never run a marathon before. I've run a couple of half marathons but that's it.

I haven't trained for at least 6 months due to a foot injury. I have some grandpa style orthotics which will hopefully get me through.

I'm putting it out here as I don't think I have the willpower to get up at 6am to train unless this information is public; or at least as public as my blog, facebook and twitter can be.

I'm going to try using an iphone app http://gps.motionx.com/overview/ to track my training.

Apparently it can update twitter and facebook; we'll see.

So I have 4 months to train. Wish me luck!

Middle Class Welfare

I object to the term "middle class welfare".  It's insulting to tax payers.

The term suggests that some people are getting money from the government they are not entitled to and that they do not need.

With the tax system being such a mess of contradictions there is a current requirement to try and balance the load.  

We have a system where I can get a medicare funded eye test but have to use private health insurance to go to the dentist; a system where private schools receive billions of dollars from the government every year but my kids' primary school cannot afford a new coat of paint; a system where washing a pair of overalls is tax deductible yet washing a suit isn't; a system where a 1st home buyers grant inflates the cost of new houses and others claim a tax deduction for spending too much buying investment properties, etc etc etc.

The tax system in Australia is a mess.  It has been so for a long time and doesn't seem to be getting any better.   

Until such time as the tax system is simplified and sorted out there will be a need to balance the load.  Until such time as the system is sorted out there will be payments and imbalances and unfairness.  

Fix the system, don't insult the tax payers.  

Frankston Bypass and other things

I am concerned at newspaper reports that the Peninsula Link will
somehow be a solution to the absolutely dreadful traffic situation in
Frankston.  The fact is that whilst the new freeway will take some
traffic around Frankston, there will be a considerable amount of
traffic continuing to funnel through the Frankston Freeway /
Cranbourne Road interchange.

It is now a nightmare trying to travel East/West along Cranbourne
Road.  This is forcing cars north on to Beach Street (which is now at
a standstill at peak times) or further south past the University to
try and get around the snarls.

Furthermore, people trying to get home into Frankston are trying to
get off the freeway early at either Rutherford Road, Seaford Road or
Dandenon g Road and then are chasing along rat runs (Dandenong Road
East for example) to try and get home.

Peninsula Link will not fix these problems.

The latest in a litany of disastrous solutions is the laughable
P-Turn.  What an absolute joke.  The P-Turn will make it easier to get
off the Frankston Freeway but is going to make it even worse for
East-West traffic.  A lot of the people who stand to benefit most from
the P-Turn do not live in Frankston!

The pattern starting to emerge is that whilst the Victorian Government
is bending over backwards to help other communities (the Dandenong
bypass, the Ringwood bypass, the Deer Park bypass) absolutely nothing
is being done to help the people who live in Frankston.  Obviously the
parliamentarians in these areas have enough influence with Spring
Street to get results for their local communities.

My question is - who is standing up for Frankston?