Moustache - HIDING A STIFF UPPER LIP FOR OVER 37 YEARS.

We don’t stay in 5 star hotels, especially in Europe. Hotels with a 3 and 4 star rating seem to suit our needs and our budget.

Stairs not lifts seem to be the rule in most of these hotels. So at the end of a hard day, clambering over ruins or negotiating treacherous mountain bends, the last thing you need is to schlep your 18kg pack up four flights of narrow stairs.

In the past even these less salubrious establishments would have a spotty faced youth to carry your bags.

And you would reward him handsomely for his efforts.

I guess it’s a sign of the tight economic times but they are now an extinct species.

Also missing is the electric jug with your morning tea and coffee.

I wonder if the Bell Boys stole them as a parting gesture?

I wonder how much better many ancient sites would be if they hadn’t been vandalised by the archeologists who stumbled upon them?

Three Egyptian obelisks, misnamed Cleopatra’s Needles, now stand erect in London, Paris and New York.

Large chunks the Parthenon in Athens were stolen by the 7th Earl of Elgin, then shipped to England. They are now the pride of the British Museum.

Heinrich Schlieman, a German archeologist and fortune hunter, smuggled Priam’s Treasure, said to come from ancient Troy, to Berlin.

In 1945 it was stolen again, this time by the Red Army and taken to Moscow. It’s now in the Pushkin Museum.

Did they remove these treasures for the sake of art history or to enhance their own wealth and reputations?

The Keep It Simple Stupid strategy should have been adopted by the Victorian administration when they were deciding on a transport ticketing system.

Having just spent a week traveling around Istanbul I wonder why the Myki system has cost so much and been so long in coming.

In Istanbul every fare costs 2 Tukish Lire (AU$1), no matter where you travel or on what mode of transport you choose to use around the city.

They have trams, trains, busses, ferries and an underground.

You just buy a token from a machine and that’s it. This is brilliant for the tens of thousands of tourists that visit Istanbul each year.

There is also a pass system for the everyday commuter and this seems to work without a hitch.

There are no teams of Met Gorillas patrolling trams tops and stations, just one guy at each barrier. He is there to stop people sneaking through and more importantly, to help.

The system is simple and effective.

It works so well because of one ‘simple’ fact. You can’t get onto anything without first passing through a barrier and swiping your card or putting a token in the slot.

Simple.

With the unfortunate death of another Victorian bike rider, concerned groups are asking for tougher legislation.

“People who drive less than a metre from cyclists should face harsh penalties, bike groups have said.” The Age, July 26, 2011.

This approach seems to be the only answer to so many ‘concerned groups’. This has led many to believe that Australia is becoming a Nanny Nation.

We now have calls for stricter controls on advertising to kids. Health warnings on alcohol and so many signs on our streets, telling us what to do and what not to do, that they have become a source of increased visual pollution.

Continuing on a theme of telling us what to do is Metro, the operator of the Melbourne rail system.

As well as subjecting us to a barrage of verbal warnings they have now plastered their escalators with more instructions on how to behave.

I wonder if the millions that it’s costing us, to introduce and enforce this new legislation and behavior, wouldn’t be better spent on educating people to think more for themselves.

Isn’t it better to know what is right rather than be told what is wrong?