Friday before the AFL Grand Final

[reddragdiva]

that's literally the official name of a new public holiday in victoria.

i used to live here, about 500 metres from the mcg. every friday night, saturday (twice) and sunday (twice) in winter, people desperate for parking for the footy would literally park in the middle of the street just ‘cos they could, and never mind anyone who e.g. lived there and had a car.

i became an ardent non-fan of football that year (1999), and also city of yarra traffic wardens became my greatest heroes. i’d call and encourage them to come over for rich pickings. at the time parking fines were something like 20% of the city of yarra’s income, and it couldn’t have come from more deserving targets.

i slightly miss many of my past houses, but not that one ‘cos it was a fucking dump and so was that bit of richmond in general. it was cheap because it was scheduled for demolition just as soon as (unspecified shonky financial shenanigans). i think it was still there when i left melbourne in 2002. otoh, we rented the third bedroom to friends for their serious-level SCA costume-making and antique sewing machine. (they lived 75m away on punt road in a teeny flat.) we literally had a robot housemate that never ate, spoke or left its room but paid rent. that bit was perfect.

though that is an awesomely ‘strayan official title for a holiday.

and in conclusion, fuck football. and traffic wardens are great and you should give one a smile today.

Comments

[greylock]

i became an ardent non-fan of football that year (1999)

Slow.

though that is an awesomely ‘strayan official title for a holiday.

Not anywhere Not Melbourne.

[reddragdiva]

There are places that aren't Melbourne?

[inulro]

The Canadian equivalent of that comment is Toronto.

Where, incidentally, sports fans would park on your lawn on game days.

[greylock]

Why, yes. There is also Sydney.

[urocyon]

Wow. I thought we had some fun with people parking all over the place, living so close to the dog tracks. Sounds like I would probably get friendly with the traffic wardens, too.

Maybe my favorite thing here, though, was when the council installed a bunch of bollards to try to keep them from parking on the pavement out front along an A-road. Which was fine. Other than the fact that someone also decided to place a set to very directly block off next door's parking space, so they couldn't park on their own property for months. They finally got those removed, then another set sprouted up again within a week. They seem to be gone for good now, but that was just so Havering Council.

[ideological_cuddle]

While it seems mad to have a public holiday for the football final, it's no more bonkers than the public holiday we have for a horse race.

I can see why they did it though. There's nothing between the Queen's Birthday and Horse Day in November. We do Labour Day much earlier in the year than much of the rest of the country. So there was a clear gap where a public holiday would go down well and sod-all excuse, so...