talkback radio

AD Good morning listeners, time to think about getting up. (I already have). Just a few news items before we move into the program and here’s GH with the traffic report.

GH Traffic has built up already on the Monash freeway, it's at a crawl along Flemington road due to a pile -up near the Royal Children's Hospital and to cap it all off the morning traffic and commute nightmare, trains on the Sandringham line are suspended due to a derailment at Gardenvale and a signalling failure has caused the boom gates to be locked down on Grange Road Carnegie. Traffic is banked up about 1 km. Apart from these hitches things are running normally in the metropolitan area. Well I suppose this IS normal! ( Laughs ruefully).
AD Thanks GH and now to the weather from CB.

CB It’s warming up now currently 28 degrees with a maximum of 39 expected with, a north wind towards 4.00pm but no cool change on the horizon today. Please don’t leave your children or dogs in the car even for a minute!

AD Thanks CB and now to some environmental warnings, over to the EPA What’s happening?

EPA Well, AD most of the Bayside beaches are closed due to high e-coli measures. If you can, we recommend cooling down at an ocean beach such as Portsea or Torquay and if you have a backyard ( what a quaint expression) swimming pool, then lucky you (few)! For the rest of us, well a cold face washer and a fan is the best I can suggest.

AD Thanks EPA, Well listeners - a scorcher today and very few options for most of us to cool down. I hope people don’t run out of fuel caught in traffic. Well we want to hear from you 1414141 is the number. Today ‘we’re talking about school fees which will now set parents back half a million dollars for one child at a private non Catholic school. How important is it to you to give your kids private school education? How will you be able to afford it? Alternatively please ring in to let us know your "keeping cool" ideas. Now we’ll go to a music break; here is a real oldie from the late Nat King Cole “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” Anyone remember those days?

The song is played … and AD returns

AD Very nostalgic ….so much so that few of us will even remember when it was current, but those 60s live on, don’t they?

AD Maddison has rung from Carnegie, Hi Maddison, you’re still waiting to get through the boom gate in Grange Rd. How long have you been stuck?

Maddison Hi AD. It’s been 35 minutes now and I can’t even make a U turn to try a different route traffic is banked up bumper to bumper in both directions.

AD That’s very frustrating to say the least. Have you turned the engine off or are you poised ready to go?

Maddison I’ve turned the engine off, but I’m still poised ready to go. I’m a speech pathologist and my first client is due in 5 minutes. Even without traffic I’m still 10 minutes from my place of work. I’m very stressed as I will lose money, if my client goes or I will run late all day if she waits!

AD Thanks for ringing in Maddison. let’s hope you can get through that barrier soon! Now Robert is calling from Frighton regarding school fees. What are you going to do Robert, opt for the local high school? I believe it was once used in a TV series so it has a certain prestige!

Robert Hi AD. My family is really wealthy so if my father sold the bathing box on Dendy street beach we’d be laughing and my son could attend Frighton Grammar from kindergarten to stumps and then my daughter could attend the exclusive Burbank Girls School on the income from my father’s rental properties. But I can see it is a problem for most people to find this kind of money. What I say is that if you have to consider Frighton Secondary then you can’t afford to live in Frighton! Ha ha!

AD Glad things are so easy for you Robert By the way what business is your father in?

Robert Well as you may be able to guess, he is in the property industry. He is a developer and real estate agent. Things have been going very well for us since PM John Howard stuck his foot on the immigration pedal. Of course many of the beautiful homes in the area have been demolished and redeveloped with high density, but at least we still have the family home and I have one just as good. I’ll be splashing around in the pool this afternoon that’s for sure!.
AD Thanks Robert, it’s more than we can take. After the next call we have the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, another Robert - Lord Mayor , Robert Boyle. He's going to talk about where to get a good cup of coffee.

The Lord mayor is regularly invited to 774. He is up- beat about Melbourne's future as a populous international 24 hour city growing fast and furiously. The Lord Mayor likes the city to buzz and he intends to do his bit for the all important ingredient in a city worth of the name, "vibrancy".He is there to give Melbourne its medicine to counteract, with his official status, the influence of citizens' spontaneous expressions of disgust with growth. Welcome as usual, Lord Mayor !