Ray's Rants Podcast - Building, architecture, old houses, new houses... 

Hi Ray, thanks for another excellent podcast. The one thing that I don't like about the latest buildings is that many are either high-rise apartments or stacks of units taking up the entire block of land. Not far from us, there is one place that looks literally like a pile of old boxes stacked very badly. We have a building in the city that looks more like something that has half fallen down. If it actually collapsed, it could only be an improvement. I like the older homes. At least they allow for front and back yards and a decent space from the neighbours. Maybe we should sack all the architects and hire ancient Egyptians. Then we could build pyramids everywhere!!! LOL. Many fireplaces made these days look almost genuine, but they are electric. The fire only works if the switch is turned on!!! My grandparents had a dining room, kitchen and laundry in heir house. Recently, I have seen their old house online up for sale and they now call the dining room the lounge room, the kitchen the dining room and the laundry the kitchen. Very confusing!!! In Melbourne back in the day, all the pubs used to close at 6.00pm each night. Did that stop drinking?? No, the patrons just used buckets instead of glasses, as they had to get drunk very quickly!!!! Incidentally, why do some people hang giant dice on to their car windscreens?? Back in the day, all our shops, except medical places, used to close midday Saturday and all day Sunday. Also, everything closed on public holidays. Prior to Easter, with the four days, people would be buying all their food by the truckload before the holiday break. We had some rain yesterday, but it was sunny all day today. Talking about transport disruption, as of today, the Bankstown line trains in Sydney, ceased running, with the entire line closing or a year. The Bqankstown line is being converted to a driver-less metro train line. I actually used to live in Marrickville, which is on that line. I really feel sorry for the people there with no trains running for a year. A few days there without trains causes complete chaos, which I experienced during train strikes there. Why can't toilets be flushed with sea water? That would work quite well, but I suppose that it may rot the plastic toilets. Maybe Scotland could set up stacks of old used bagpipes joined together and flush water around the UK that way!!! This could save on installing plastic pipes and it may even work better!!! Only kidding!!! Incidentally, if we stone all the crows, we just end up with dead crows all over our lawns!!! Anyway, take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.