... you can get everything else on ebay!

ebay = the solution finder

This one popped up in a friend's ebay window.

Looking for female friends around Yamba/Grafton area May 16, 2012 12:44 AM

hi im a 32 yr old female looking for other females around my area to hang out with. No guys as i have one. well you can get everything else on ebay! A reply: I don't live near you but was up that way a couple of weeks back. You live in a beautiful spot!!! Maybe the best way to go is to try and join some local groups or volunteer somewhere to meet other people. Good luck

Singing The Yamba Cycle Way Blues

The disappearing Yamba Road cycle lane

On Monday 9 April I wrote on the subject of changed traffic conditions affecting one section of the dedicated cycle way along Yamba Road. A road on which this small town’s main traffic volume flows.

By 12 May The Daily Examiner was reporting on the same safety issue where the cycle way now ends as the road approaches the Freeburn Street T-intersection and, its article quoted Clarence Valley Council's deputy general manager :

Clarence Valley Council's deputy general manager Rob Donges was aware of Mr Hunt's complaint, however he said that particular section of roadway did not include an officially designated cycleway.

"It's a shared zone and includes car parking," Mr Donges said.

"If it was a designated cycleway, then it would be marked with a solid line."

Mr Donges said the cycleway was, in fact, a shared bikeway/pedestrian pathway and there were signs provided to indicate this.

"Anyone is allowed to ride on the road and must follow normal traffic conditions," he said.

Responding to Mr Hunt's concerns regarding a lack of community consultation, Mr Donges said the pedestrian refuge had been on the drawing table for "a couple of years".

I’m not sure which I find the most offensive; the fact that council management would so misrepresent that particular section of the roadway or the fact that The Daily Examiner (which has a staffed office in Yamba) obviously didn’t bother to sight that same section before it published this quote.

One has to hope that council management displays a higher level of professional discipline when it advises Clarence Valley Council’s traffic advisory committee on this matter later this month and that in future the newspaper does not uncritically accept statements by local government staff.

Here is a segment of the map Clarence Valley Council attaches to its own 2008 Bike Plan and Pedestrian Access and Mobility Plan which clearly indicates that the dedicated regional cycling route (marked with pink broken lines and arrows) extends beyond the Freeburn Street T-intersection with Yamba Road and that the road section in question should be marked as such. That the shared bikeway/pedestrian pathway referred to does not commence until a subsequent T-intersection leading to the gantry wall.

Section of Yamba Map 

Click on image to enlarge

If Clarence Valley Council has varied the provisions in its bike, pedestrian access and mobility planning document, then it has allowed residents and ratepayers to largely remain in ignorance of the fact as it still displays the 2008 plan and maps on its website as principal documents.

Strange coincidence

The stars must have been aligned this week for nit nose pickers. First, Jason Chatfield's Ginger Meggs appeared in Wednesday's Daily Examiner:

Then, Dr Joan Croll had this piece in the letters columns of The Sydney Morning Herald:

Credits: www.gingermeggs.com   The Sydney Morning Herald

Examples of NSW legislators' very own handiwork are cause for concern

If the 2011-2012 Register of Disclosures by Members of the NSW Legislative Assembly, which was tabled in the chamber recently, is anything to go by then there's enough evidence to say that some of those so-called honourable persons should be sitting a NAPLAN-style test of their own to examine their capacity to perform basic literary and numeracy tasks, and thus satisfactorily perform their roles as representatives of their constituents.

Honestly, some of them are struggling to attain primary school levels of attainment.

Take a look at these examples:


That, believe it or not, is the work of a Minister. Phew!
Comment: Pathetic! The Minister has a Masters Degree. Perhaps a ghost writer helped with the Minister's thesis.


That one was submitted by a first term MP who resides on the Government benches in the chamber.
Comment: Must do a lot better. Pay attention in class and complete all set homework.


That, too, is the the work of a Government MP.
Comment: Sympathies are extended to ratepayers in the MP's local government area.

Several MPs have difficulties with their principals and principles (see below).

Those MPs aren't half smart. The effort of another MP has shown them up well and truly - if in doubt, use short-cut method #1.

Or, to throw readers off the trail completely, do something completely different and use method #2.

Okay, so who did what?

The samples have been taken from the disclosures by:

1. The Hon. Donald Loftus PAGE, BEc, MEc, DipRurAcctg MP

Member for Ballina

Minister for Local Government, and Minister for the North Coast
Member of the The Nationals

2. Mr (Chris) Christopher Stewart PATTERSON, MP

Member for Camden

Member of the Liberal Party

3. Mr (John) Giovanni Domenic BARILARO, MP

Member for Monaro

Acting Speaker
Member of the The Nationals

4. The Hon. Linda Jean BURNEY, HonDEd, DipEd MP

Member for Canterbury

Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Planning Infrastructure and Heritage, Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation, Shadow Minister for the Hunter, and Shadow Minister for the Central Coast
Member of the Australian Labor Party

5. Again, the work of Mr Barilaro who is, quite obviously, a serial offender.

6. Ms Tania MIHAILUK, BEc, LLB MP

Member for Bankstown

Shadow Minister for Fair Trading, Shadow Minister for Healthy Lifestyles, and Shadow Minister for Volunteering and Youth
Member of the Australian Labor Party

7. And, who were the smarties?

#1. Mr John ROBERTSON, MP

Member for Blacktown

Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Western Sydney, and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra
Member of the Australian Labor Party

#2. Ms Clover MOORE, MP

Member for Sydney

Independent

Sources:

1. 2011-2012 Register of Disclosures by Members of the NSW Legislative Assembly

2. MPs' profiles shown on the NSW Parliament website

Cripes! Andrew Stoner - rapidly elevated and staged a political takeover

Seems Andrew Stoner is now Australia’s Acting Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment. Well, that's what an international publisher for the exhibition, conference and events industries is saying.

Read it for yourself:

AUSTRALASIA - Australia’s Acting Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Stoner will be the inaugural Patron of Business Events Sydney’s (BE Sydney) Ambassador Programme, a business development programme that helps to secure international events for Sydney and the state of New South Wales.

The publisher is aptly named. It's Mash Media. Perhaps Stoner provided MishMash with the information in the first place.