Observations on City life...

[big Neil]

Okay so I have just returned home after a week in Sydney (aka The Big Smoke). I didn't actually see any smoke, but it was foggy.

It was fantastic catching up with FrankS, Pickles, and DerekD, as well as a few other Raiders. It always is.

One of the things I like to investigate is the "human condition" of places which I visit. In other words I relate the infrastructure of places to the population. No particular reason, just my general curiosity relative to people and places. So this is what I found interesting...

The road network, whilst unsatisfactory for the needs of the population, is an elaborate concoction of concrete and metal. The way that the constructors have weaved the web of motorways to supplement the already existing suburban roads shows that modern engineering can overcome most obstacles to achieve a result. I'm not saying that the end result is an ideal solution...many would say that it is not.

I had the opportunity to visit COSTCO in the North Western suburbs. This place got my mind racing! It is almost as big as the town where I live, and there were possibly as many people in there. I was informed that this was "a quiet day" in the place. As I pushed the massive trolley round, I couldn't help but sample the many things that were on offer. Indeed one could walk round there for one's daily exercise, feed oneself, and not buy anything. Okay, you have to pay an annual "membership", but how much would you save by having at least one free meal per day... and 7 days a week? But that was just the start of my mind wandering. I took onboard the enormity of the place, the millions of kilos of produce, and the number of people in close proximity... a few mental additions later and I was thinking how much food is consumed by 5.5 million in Sydney, and then 25 million in Australia, then 8 billion on the planet. My mind raced even further to the amount of waste produced from packaging, etc that ends up in landfill, or even worse, the oceans of the world... after that brain surge, I needed a lie down! I further expanded the thinking to the balance of land use. How much gets used for agriculture, industry, housing, recreation, and LANDFILLS? I recalled that our Shire had developed at least 3 separate landfills for a mere 10,000 population. I wonder what %age of Sydney is dedicated to landfill? Certainly a lot is dedicated to housing, which got me thinking of some of the housing which I saw on my travels. The wonderful diversity of million $ views overlooking the harbour, to the spacious places in Strathfield, and on to the most horrendous multi-storey places that did nothing to stimulate the senses. Ok, I know they are essential, in the scheme of things, BUT REALLY, THIS IS AUSTRALIA and one of the least populated places on earth.

The big planes, coming in to land, or taking off, appear to be almost static in the skies above Sydney. Clearly this is an optical illusion, otherwise 400 tonnes of aluminium would be dropping down on some of the magnificent buildings, and inhabitants, on a regular basis.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are specifically the views of the author. There is no intent to undermine any person, or their standing, by the views expressed herein.

About the author. He is an idiot with a weird sense of humour who likes to look at things in an oblique way. He takes tablets for this condition, but they don't work.

bn

[masterfisho7]

Top report Neil  

[slowjigger]

 "BUT REALLY, THIS IS AUSTRALIA and one of the least populated places on earth".

They are doing their best trying to change that. We will have 60 million around the end of the century under current policies.

 

[Fab1]

We are all to blame one way or another for destroying this world mate.We are slowly killing ourselves and too stupid to do anything about it.We could get rid of plastic packaging or drastically reduce it easy.

I regards to Costco the mrs says take me to grab a few things please?An hour or 2 later we leave $700-$1000 lighter without fail.

 As for Strathfield having "open" spaces you'd think places like where I live in Macarthur,Camden there isn't a neighbour within 1000kms from you compared to that rabbit Warren.

Next time your driving anywhere around Sydney look on the side of the road as you drive and you'll find litter the whole way of your drive.

[big Neil]

7 hours ago, Fab1 said:

We are all to blame one way or another for destroying this world mate.We are slowly killing ourselves and too stupid to do anything about it.We could get rid of plastic packaging or drastically reduce it easy.

I regards to Costco the mrs says take me to grab a few things please?An hour or 2 later we leave $700-$1000 lighter without fail.

 As for Strathfield having "open" spaces you'd think places like where I live in Macarthur,Camden there isn't a neighbour within 1000kms from you compared to that rabbit Warren.

Next time your driving anywhere around Sydney look on the side of the road as you drive and you'll find litter the whole way of your drive.

I would be too scared to take my eyes off the road to be able to see the litter Fab. I'm not keen on driving in Sydney, especially with a GPS system that is over 5 yrs old. I headed home yesterday in the early hours and the ED was closed. The GPS kept taking me back to it and I had no idea where I was. Even that was stressful. Hope you're keeping well mate, bn

[Fab1]

6 hours ago, big Neil said:

I would be too scared to take my eyes off the road to be able to see the litter Fab. I'm not keen on driving in Sydney, especially with a GPS system that is over 5 yrs old. I headed home yesterday in the early hours and the ED was closed. The GPS kept taking me back to it and I had no idea where I was. Even that was stressful. Hope you're keeping well mate, bn

Cheers mate.

  

[noelm]

Litter is getting to be a bigger and bigger problem, especially since almost every fast food outlet has a drive through, so, you end up with a bag/box of rubbish to dispose of! Everyone is so "busy" these days, it's easier to just toss it out the window than stop for a minute to put it in the bin, I see it weekly out the front of my place, pisses me off big time. I have even resorted to be an "old fart" and calling Council, had two inspections and told there was nothing they could do, they provided a bin! I will just continue to pick up rubbish left behind by "kids" eating fast food at night.

[Fab1]

8 minutes ago, noelm said:

Litter is getting to be a bigger and bigger problem, especially since almost every fast food outlet has a drive through, so, you end up with a bag/box of rubbish to dispose of! Everyone is so "busy" these days, it's easier to just toss it out the window than stop for a minute to put it in the bin, I see it weekly out the front of my place, pisses me off big time. I have even resorted to be an "old fart" and calling Council, had two inspections and told there was nothing they could do, they provided a bin! I will just continue to pick up rubbish left behind by "kids" eating fast food at night.

I'm with you on your views on litter mate.It's EVERYWHERE if you take time out to observe.We have beautiful bush areas where I live full of it we see all the time when out riding our horses or just walking through the trails and bush.

 

 Dumped rubbish,cars,builders rubble as in truckloads (It's well known businesses) dump their waste in the bush to avoid huge dumping fees.

[Rebel]

Try overseas. Especially New York or Japan.

You will be back straight away.

I remember years ago I walked out of the International Termial at Mascot and there was a guy kissing the ground.

I said you all right mate. He just looked at me and said this is the greatest country in the world ( Australia ) & walked off.

 

[noelm]

I guess in a way, we are the "lucky country" for all our faults and strange stuff going on, we do live pretty free, don't have a crazy gun culture, not paranoid about Police pulling you over to frame you for something, friendly population (in the main) decent lifestyle, very little true poverty, all in all, it's a pretty good place.

[big Neil]

3 hours ago, Rebel said:

Try overseas. Especially New York or Japan.

You will be back straight away.

I remember years ago I walked out of the International Termial at Mascot and there was a guy kissing the ground.

I said you all right mate. He just looked at me and said this is the greatest country in the world ( Australia ) & walked off.

 

I have travelled quite a lot and, being a fair minded individual, I have to say that Australia is the greatest country that I have ever visited. Living here is a privilege. As anglers, is there anywhere that is substantially better?

bn

[bessell1955]

Sydney, a good place to stay away from!

[noelm]

Not too sure I 100% agree, sure there's traffic and all sorts of "issues", but, in the main, Sydney is a great city, reasonable fishing, clean water, mostly relaxed lifestyle, until you experience some other places, it's very much "better the devil you know"