Reading Pratchett, spooky coincidences

I have taken to reading Terry Pratchett since there are no more works by Douglas Adams. Sadly for me, I did not find Discworld, that much cause for humour at first, however things are improving with a decent laugh from "Moving Pictures" and a quite a few more from the last one I read.

What I find more interesting is the "coincidence" about what I read and when. I was on a European coach tour while reading "Colour of Magic" and or "Interesting Times" something about a holidaymaker, something Chinese, close enough anyway. Another holiday was seeing the real outback Australia around Darwin, anyway ended up reading "Last Continent". Just finished reading "Going Postal"...did I mention that I actually work for an evil clacks company. Strangely I didn’t identify with the main character. I felt more like the Golems and the undelivered letters. I also found some of the insights into the clacks workers spooky.

Split Streets, you can't get there from here

Have you ever noticed a street which is split in half? cut by a railway or new motorway. how about a street which was never completed in the middle due to a large gully? maybe it is not just broken into two parts. maybe it is large gullies all over the place and a single named street is broken into 3 or 4 parts, and you have to find your way from where you are around to the other part.

Do you have a map??? Because if you do then you are best placed to find your way around. maybe you can see the other part, over there through the bushes, and a bit of left, right left, will get you there.

But what if it is more complicated and you don’t have a map, or worse still, you only have a GPS navigator!!! How will the pea brained computer figure that out unless it already knows that there are 4 high streets in the destination suburb?

so what can be done?

join the offending sections of a single named road together with million dollar bridges? could a sign explain how to get there from here? rename one of the roads, if the reconnection is never going to be completed? (inconvenient for residents).

Probably the minimum practical solution would be to add the suffix north and south to a pair, or east and west. but a 4 parter? "high street d" perhaps?
It seems like that could still go wrong at the weakest link, the sign on the street itself. just an extra letter or two.

Neighbourhood action. make sure everyone in your street(s) is aware of the problem, you might need an ambulance one day. Write a letter to council and all sign it. any other ideas?

groceries online, home delivery.

On a positive note, I have found another 2 suppliers in south east Queensland who will do what I want, which is order groceries etc., that is, ones’ regular weekly or fortnightly purchases, order online (although fax would even suffice) and then deliver to ones’ home on a specified day.

http://www.farmfreshcentral.com and http://www.onlyoz.com.au

Thus removing ones’ reliance on the private car for the pointless trip to the well lit shop, passing up and down the half empty aisles, and using the private car to cart it all home again. Online ordering, (through a warehouse environment rather than a shop) and sharing a delivery truck.

Personal Automatic Transport for south east Queensland Australia

i was thinking of preparing a proposal to take the S.E.Q. area into the 21st century by starting on a flexible, expandable P.A.T. system for south east Queensland. i think it would be a real tourist drawcard. people need public transport, but want promptness, speed and privacy. up till now this mean choosing the private car and trying to use an increasingly overloaded road system. Systems are already designed, and just needs to be installed with a minimum of disruption.
http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/prt.html