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Canberra Today 25°/28° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra Confidential: A peeling bridge loses its appeal

TUGGERANONG’S new $6 million “Golden Gate” pedestrian bridge, that straddles busy Drakeford Drive at Kambah, is seriously peeling, only months after its pre-election rush to be completed. 

The peeling Tuggeranong bridge
The peeling Tuggeranong bridge
The paintwork is blistering and the median strip is festooned with falling shards of poorly prepared paint skin.

CC’s hoarse whisperer from the south thinks the grey undercoat that’s bursting into view looks better than the bright orange colour that’s falling to the floor.

Given the second-class-citizens sensitivity of the voters of Brindabella at the last election, CC thinks the Government might like to fix this very public, shabby job quickly. Even the graffiti artists are staying away!

Healthy records

WITH the recent resignation of the SA Health Minister John Hill, Chief Minister Katy Gallagher now holds the crown as Australia’s longest-serving serving health minister. She is also the ACT’s longest-serving Health Minister, since April 20, 2006; pipping “CityNews” columnist and former politician Michael Moore, who balanced the poisoned chalice for three and a half years.

Leigh’s hot vote

WHAT’S my age again? The first order for the day was not business but music for Federal Member for Fraser and young-at-heart Andrew Leigh, with a blog post revealing his votes for this year’s Triple J Hottest 100. In case you’re dying to know, Calvin Harris and The Black Keys were among his picks.

Silent lights

WITH the PM’s XI about to take on the West Indies in the first match under the imposing new lights at Manuka Oval, on Tuesday, January 29, CC asked if there had been any complaints from local matrons about the effect of the size and scale of the lighting towers on, say, local housing values. Not many, mused Cricket ACT’s barker Dougal Reed. In fact, he thinks it will increase the value of real estate with the prospect of the lights being used for cricket, AFL and – this is new – concerts.

Brought to book

HELL hath no fury like a librarian… Sydney’s Manly Library was quick to rub salt in Lance Armstrong’s gaping wounds just hours after his Oprah confessional by announcing it will move his motivational and biographical books to the fiction section. Our own Civic Library hasn’t made the move just yet; the disgraced cyclist’s rantings can still be found under “non-fiction”.

Aussie, oh, oh, oh!

CC’s stomach was far too delicate to accept the kind invitation from the Grill’d eatery at Manuka for the launch of its salute to Australia Day – the “Coat of Arms” burger, a patriotic blend of kangaroo and emu.

Wood for the? 

Hotel hotel foyer
Hotel Hotel foyer
IT appears you can’t see the foyer for the wood at NewActon’s new hotel, Hotel Hotel, where they seem to have taken planking to an art form. Snapper Silas Brown peeped through the door of the Nishi Building hotel, which is due to open in March.

Snags ahead for Cam

LOCAL butcher Cameron Fenson, of Meatways Butchery, Kambah, will represent the ACT at the National Sausage King Competition in Perth next month. Cameron will compete in the Australian Lamb/Open Class sausage category of the competition on February 9. Happy sizzling.

Makes you go hmmm…

1. GOOD corporate citizens ActewAGL hoik a million coconuts into sponsoring the Centenary only to have the ACT Government snub its half-owned electricity instrumentality (which employs local taxpayers and voters) and award a Queensland reseller with its $16m electricity account for the next two years. Nuts or what?

2. OUT-of-order sign on the door of a stall in the men’s toilet at the National Portrait Gallery: “Sorry for the inconvenience”.

3. LOCAL four-year-old wearies of his visiting grandfather’s enthusiasm to engage him through toys, harrumphs off with the withering salvo: “Play with yourself, grandad!”

4. THEY’RE almost back, but what do we have a parliament of? In the world of collective nouns, the answer is owls. Just like an armoury of aardvarks, a gang of alpacas and a weight of albatrosses.

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Ian Meikle, editor

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