Season's Greetings

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@NO***damned***SPAMiprolink.co.nz>]

Hello All

It's a hot and sunny Saturday here in Auckland. I've been out in the
back yard painting a stain on some new deck furniture we've got for
Christmas. The children are eagerly waiting to rip open the growing pile
of presents under the tree in the lounge. Margot is out doing some
last-minute shopping. We've all finished work and school for the year
and it feels great.

And just think, January 1 heralds the real dawn of the new century and
the new millennium, so we can party party party for real.

In 2001, money and the value of the $NZ permitting,  I hope to swing by
San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver to check out the trolley bus
systems there (not to mention the Muni streetcars and BART in San
Francisco). I can't wait for that 14-hour non-stop flight across the
Pacific. 

And I will be going to Melbourne for the opening of the extension to Box
Hill of the Mont Albert tram (streetcar) line which allegedly will now
be in September 2001 rather than in early 2002. There is no way I will
be missing that, as Box Hill is where I grew up and I have been waiting
since I was a kid for this much-overdue tram extension to be built. By
then, some of the new Citadis articulated trams will be in service with
the operator, Yarra Trams (or whatever it's called this month) and they
will be used on the Port Melbourne - City - Mont Albert - Box Hill line
(route 109).

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand

-- God created New Zealand so Tasmanians had something to laugh about.