Good things happen to good people.
The huge Easter egg filled with chocolates that was half price after Easter and which I bravely passed by, was half the half price this week. A bargain that good is too good to leave and believe me we haven't left much.
We topped up the Bombay for the cocktail hour and no paper bags for us. The bottle came in a blue velvet drawstring bag, if you don't mind. Colour us classy and slightly fuzzy around the edges.
Bad things happen too.
The HouseBwca and I seem to have picked up colds/sore throats/sneezing/head aches, in other words, germs. We've narrowed the suspects to a theatre full of grotty teenagers last Tuesday.
They left popcorn, coca-cola drinks, chocolate wrappers over the floor and seats so why wouldn't they leave a few trillion germs as well. I didn't need my sister to tell me they probably wiped their noses on their hands and wiped those on the seats for the next viewing. Eewww!
I can't afford to get sick now. I have a party invite for the 12th and sister is off to Perth on the 14th and I'm holding the fort with Ma. There's only one thing for it, drown them with Vitamin C. Lemon juice in the Bombay, 4 times a day, 5, if I put it on the weeties.
Now some history for Andrew and Jayne. I live in the middle of a sand mining belt in Melbourne and according to the local paper, the sand mines have been operating for the past 50 years but the pits left behind are filled with quicksand. This is usually a mix of sand, salt, clay and water and some of the pits are believed to be between 8 and 10 metres deep.
I've always known about the myths and legends of the local quicksands and hoped my boys never heard them. A forlorn hope of course, No. 1 son and the BrickOutHouse knew every dangerous place around and explored all of them.
The item in the article that caught my attention was that when some of the holes were filled in, they put old trains down there because they were built with asbestos on them and it was thought of as an easy disposal method. So, has anyone heard of this? Andrew? Jayne?
11 comments:
"The pits left behind are filled with quicksand."
Here's an interesting 'fact' that not a lot of people know. Despite so many villains in Hollywood movies meeting their unpleasant ends in hidden pits of quicksand, it's actually impossible to sink up to your hat in the stuff. The weight of the human body acting upon the semi-liquid, semi-solid substance forces compaction, so that, by the time you're halfway in, the quicksand beneath you is too firm to allow further sinkage.
Any volunteers out there is Oz want to put this to the test? (And no, I don't mean by using me as the crash-test dummy.)
No volunteers from OZ needed to put this to the test. Oprah has the verification protocols under control.
She, Dr Phil, Judge Judy, Godzilla and a herd of genetically engineered lemmings are all going to bungey jump from the top of the Empire State Building into a 44 gallon drum of sand and Lo Fat soy yoghurt.
Sadly no custard, whipped cream, handcuffs or naked Nazi lesbianese will be involved.
Dammit, scientific research aint what it used to be back in my day.
I blame reality television, the lack of attention to petri dish moulds and the dire shortage of litmus paper in the dunnies of the ivy covered halls of learning.
goodtidings miss jt. stay well.
If they can get away with it they will do it. full stop.
I understand the blue Harris trains were the ones with asbestos. I also believe they were dumped at the Clayton tip. They didn't start scrapping them until the seventies when the modern sliver Hitachi trains arrived, that seemed to be cutting edge, but turned out not to be. Asbestos or not, the blue trains were very comfortable and quiet compared to the Tait red rattlers.
I've just confirmed that, yes, they did dump the old Blue Bullets in the sand quarry holes. Asbestos was a no-no to be dumped at the tip, although they did toss a few there, so the sand mines were filled in with those *sob* beautiful trains.
And the sand mines have been operating in your area, JahTeh, since the 1920's ;)
Thank you Fleetwood, are you sure you wouldn't like to volunteer? We could anchor you to Lord Sedgwick for safety.
Anonymous, you sound a lot like Robbert so I hope you are well too.
I've been keeping abreast of the saga Therese. You deserve justice from those morons.
Andrew and Jayne, I knew you would come through. I can't believe they did that. Those trains were part of my life and so were the red rattlers. There was nothing like getting a window seat on the rattler and sleeping all the way to Flinders Street.
Quicksand eh? One more reason for me to NEVER move to Melbourne.........
Oi Jayne, are you saying I am wrong, and I could well be, and that some Harris trains were dumped as Jahteh mentioned?
River, one more reason?
Andrew, we were surrounded by tips twenty years ago as well as sand quarries so there's probably a few underword heavies buried very deep.
No, not RH.
RH has never posted anonymous.
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