ajft

Arrg, the one day I leave my camera at home is the one day that I get a perfect opportunity for a photo. There I was, stopped at the red light when a “cyclist” appeared, riding illegally along the footpath and across the pedestrian crossing. Dead flat tyres, knees almost hitting his chin on a way-too-small bike, the bag and clothes and appearance indicating he's one of the myriad of overseas students here at Monash University. Priceless finalé — the helmet is on backwards with the straps almost covering his eyes. I caught his eye and quite reasonably say “YOUR HELMET IS ON BACKWARDS. He smiles, looks back, nods and replies “Hello, Hello!” I guess I shouldn't be surprised, the residents around here drive like they have no idea of Australian laws, why should they be any different on a bike?

It must have been the day of the bike idiot though, later in the evening I drove into Richmond at 7:30pm, while turning right I nearly collected a stupid girl in black clothes who was riding along Swan street with no lights (just saw her silhouette as she rode past the stationary tram through the exiting passengers). I then sat waiting for ten minutes to pick up Jo, three cyclists pass in the narrow street:

• First one is girl in helmet, dark clothes, no lights, takes off the wrong way down the middle a one-way street.
• Second one is guy with no helmet, no lights, meandering down the centre of the road.
• Third one had a nice shiny bright white headlight, then he went past and I saw that he had a nice bright shiny white light on the rear too!

I've seen plenty of idiots with a flashing red on the front, this is the first idiot I've seen with a white light on the rear.

Following on from yesterday... plus one to Unisuper, after I telephoned them they changed my address — to the same, new address I changed it to in January — and they changed my login password so I can login again. Minus about five for the 24 hour delay in answering an email enquiry, an answer that told me to telephone them, and for not being able to tell me why an address change via their web site had reverted back to the old one.