WTF: Farewell old friend, job joke, council Christmas
The fate of a much loved highway icon can be finally be revealed, while a council Christmas party has raised eyebrows in this week’s WTF.
Geelong
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They’re the little – and sometimes not so little – things that can really irk us. We’ve asked the people of Geelong to point out the problems that irritate and exasperate and have us all saying, woah, that’s frustrating!
FAREWELL OLD FRIEND
The fate of a much loved M1 icon can be finally be revealed.
The speed checker on the Princes Hwy at Beach Rd has long been a source of entertainment for commuters making the less-than-riveting trek to Melbourne.
Motorists will know that it hasn’t been operational for some time now, much to the frustration of one driver.
“It was the best,” he said.
“I used to commute for Melbourne for work and it was a game to see how close to 100km/h I could get.
“It’s such a bummer it has been off for what feels like forever, I feel like it was a legitimately good tool to make sure you didn’t get a speeding ticket.
“I hope they fix it.”
Unfortunately for our reader, a Department of Transport and Planning spokesman confirmed the worst.
“We’re decommissioning and removing the Electronic Speed Advisory Sign on the Princes Freeway after it was determined it is no longer of benefit to the public,” he said.
COUNCIL’S CHRISTMAS
News doesn’t stop.
No time does this phrase become more apparent than the annual silly season.
The 24/7 industry that is news requires journalists to be rostered on at all times, and the Addy is no different.
Public holidays are non-existent, work drinks always feature one less colleague tasked with a late night shift, and thoughts are spared for the short straw drawers who have to hold the fort on Christmas Day.
But that’s the job.
So it raised a few eyebrows this week when our newsroom received a request from the City of Greater Geelong to get all media requests in earlier in the week as the team will be taking some time to celebrate their annual Christmas party.
Must be nice.
To be fair, they’ve had a big year, this column has passed on a huge number of your complaints via this ‘WTF’ vessel, keeping council on their toes and forcing a lot of your little niggles to be fixed.
On that, we’ll be bringing you a list of the changes you’ve helped bring about in the last six or so months via this column shortly.
So thank you for that, keep sending them in so when council do finally get back to their desks they’ve got something to do.
JOB JOKE
How’s this?
Imagine doing a job interview in the middle of a busy public cafe?
Addy snapper Alan Barber was having lunch at a Geelong venue last week when three middle aged men walked in a sat down opposite for what looked like a quick catch up.
But the booming voice of one of that group soon made it clear what this was about.
“What do you know about…? What experience do you have in…? Do you think you will be able to…?
The penny dropped that this was the start of a very cringe, impersonal and very public job interview.
The interviewee to his credit tried to respond to the stock career interrogation as best and meekly as he could but it was apparent from his short and low volume replies that the location was at best -awkward. Should job interviews be in private places?
GREEN CLEAN
Cleaners will be on deck this weekend to scrub algae off the bottom of the Olympic pool at the Kardinia Aquatic Centre.
Geelong council confirmed last week that a “carpet of green” in the pool revealed in wtf last weekend was indeed algae.
The pool has remained open to swimmers this week but the green is set to go during an “essential maintenance” blitz running from noon on Sunday until Wednesday.
After Kardinia announced the closure times on social media, a staffer confirmed it was to clean the green.
The toddlers’ pool and learn-to-swim pool will also be closed.
SOMETHING FRUSTRATING YOU? EMAIL WILLIAM.KEECH@NEWS.COM.AU
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