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How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Old Jun 18th 2017, 1:55 am
  #31  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by Pollyana
Strange how your kids have turned out so lovely with such a dreadful mum
Haha. They're alright when they're asleep. At least they are all back with me full time and back at school which is a great relief.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 2:41 am
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by ozzieeagle
Up side of kids using the net when they are supposed to be doing homework is they become very good multitaskers. My 3rd Daughter, the one doing the electrical engineering degree is able to do both and has used that skill to her advantage in a major way in her working life.
I always find those who attempt multitasking never end up completing each task to 100%. I highly discourage it.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 3:16 am
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by Beoz
I always find those who attempt multitasking never end up completing each task to 100%. I highly discourage it.
I seem to remember a study that correlated right wing tendencies with the inability to multitask well and instead narrow down the available information and processing to very 'linear' forms.

Basically the context switching overhead meant that not only did they find it harder to jump to other tasks, they also found it harder to encapsulate diverse factors and views when the task grew complex.

Whilst focus can be good, it can also make a mess when the work or decisions involve breadth. Particularly in business, you need those with focus as the handle-turners, but if you promote them too far, well you end up with a fixation on one aspect of the problem (usually money/profit) and 'missing' of other key aspects. It's one of the valid reasons why women can be seen as better managers - less likely to be blindsided when there's lots of change about.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 4:22 am
  #34  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by GarryP
I seem to remember a study that correlated right wing tendencies with the inability to multitask well and instead narrow down the available information and processing to very 'linear' forms.

Basically the context switching overhead meant that not only did they find it harder to jump to other tasks, they also found it harder to encapsulate diverse factors and views when the task grew complex.

Whilst focus can be good, it can also make a mess when the work or decisions involve breadth. Particularly in business, you need those with focus as the handle-turners, but if you promote them too far, well you end up with a fixation on one aspect of the problem (usually money/profit) and 'missing' of other key aspects. It's one of the valid reasons why women can be seen as better managers - less likely to be blindsided when there's lots of change about.
I don't remember that study.

Have you published it yet?
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 4:49 am
  #35  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by Beoz
I don't remember that study.

Have you published it yet?
This isn't the one I remember, but it's along the same lines :

http://2012election.procon.org/sourc...atism-2012.pdf

IIRC I came across the study in connection with fault trees and assessing resilience. Sometimes, quite often, you just need to be able to deal with multiple dissimilar things at once, balancing and combining them. IIRC it was also connected with those memory feats that you see - people memorising and recalling 100 items at one time - a question of how your mind works.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 7:40 am
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by quoll
Things have changed over the decades, my boys were out and about 30 years ago but parents have become much more aware of dangers, there're more "play dates" than spontaneity, technology is far more advanced so there is more for kids to stay indoors for. In suburbia there are fewer places to congregate now too, with public land being used for building where there used to be vacant lots. I'd say things have changed a lot actually. That said, my granddaughter did score her first black eye the other day when she and her skateboard parted ways over a bump! (Takes after her dad!) But, they were on a play date at the time, not just out in the street/garden.
There probably is a tendency for playdates now unless a road is particularly suited for play. People are probably busier now, with everything so organised, so events have to be planned. Courts might lend themselves to easier roaming.

I don't see the UK as any more outdoorsy for kids for the same reasons of a shift in culture. Arguably kids roaming would now seem a bit feral. Who knows, even those 70s memories might be rose-tinted but we did a bit of it, even in London.

I would say Melbourne is very outdoorsy - not hot and certainly not humid all the time and plenty of daylight in summer, spring and autumn.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 7:40 am
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by GarryP
This isn't the one I remember, but it's along the same lines :

http://2012election.procon.org/sourc...atism-2012.pdf

IIRC I came across the study in connection with fault trees and assessing resilience. Sometimes, quite often, you just need to be able to deal with multiple dissimilar things at once, balancing and combining them. IIRC it was also connected with those memory feats that you see - people memorising and recalling 100 items at one time - a question of how your mind works.
Memorising multiple things and completing multiple tasks to the best of your ability are two separate things.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 8:30 am
  #38  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by sr71
I found the UK to be more outdoorsie with far more opportunities to do stuff like that.


Just so much opportunity to go walking, cycling, mountain biking, motorsports, sailing, team sports etc.

Ultimately it depends on you, but in Australia there can be limited facilities and it can take a long, boring drive to get there. And more seasonal, mountain biking in summer heat can be awful.
Degree of truth in this : in the middle of urban Melbourne 'play' options might be one of several 'reserves' somewhere on the road grid.

From London you can be in the Scottish highlands on the night train, or on Dartmoor, Peaks, Lakes, N Wales. If you live in Sheffield you are close to National Parks.

There are however loads of options in VIC, but some involve a (similar) drive: eg

Mtns - 3hrs (Mt Buller / Eldon way)
High Country - 5hrs+
Grampians - 3hrs + etc (from E side).

That said, you do become accustomed to long trips. Also from Melbourne, the Hume is a option and it's fine even on a Friday night. If you can drive 2 / 3 hrs, you can drive 5. The hard part is getting out of Melb initially the way you can get out of London but Melbourne is probably not so bad. I've got past the Ring road and been fine.

Also the highway is not bad in VIC, you can get on the Hume or Melba etc and get 4-5 hrs under your belt easily and get plenty of miles towards New South.

The annoyance though, is the Melba across Black Spur as it's a temporarily, fiddly, winding route, and other roads funnel around Healesville, Yea etc. You can then however access hunting country and 'wilderness' less than 2 hrs from Melbourne.

That said, I remember going to N Wales and some of the roads aren't that great as you near your final destination.

Even if you fly, some non-UK mountains are probably further away in the UK than the VIC or NSW Alps.

I also find things are particularly more 'organised' in AU. Parks have great campsites - (even a bit more hand-holding perhaps with signage). There is of course a lot more advanced stuff for those who want it.

Last edited by BadgeIsBack; Jun 18th 2017 at 8:38 am.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 5:40 pm
  #39  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by BadgeIsBack
Degree of truth in this : in the middle of urban Melbourne 'play' options might be one of several 'reserves' somewhere on the road grid.

From London you can be in the Scottish highlands on the night train, or on Dartmoor, Peaks, Lakes, N Wales. If you live in Sheffield you are close to National Parks.

There are however loads of options in VIC, but some involve a (similar) drive: eg

Mtns - 3hrs (Mt Buller / Eldon way)
High Country - 5hrs+
Grampians - 3hrs + etc (from E side).

That said, you do become accustomed to long trips. Also from Melbourne, the Hume is a option and it's fine even on a Friday night. If you can drive 2 / 3 hrs, you can drive 5. The hard part is getting out of Melb initially the way you can get out of London but Melbourne is probably not so bad. I've got past the Ring road and been fine.

Also the highway is not bad in VIC, you can get on the Hume or Melba etc and get 4-5 hrs under your belt easily and get plenty of miles towards New South.

The annoyance though, is the Melba across Black Spur as it's a temporarily, fiddly, winding route, and other roads funnel around Healesville, Yea etc. You can then however access hunting country and 'wilderness' less than 2 hrs from Melbourne.

That said, I remember going to N Wales and some of the roads aren't that great as you near your final destination.

Even if you fly, some non-UK mountains are probably further away in the UK than the VIC or NSW Alps.

I also find things are particularly more 'organised' in AU. Parks have great campsites - (even a bit more hand-holding perhaps with signage). There is of course a lot more advanced stuff for those who want it.
That's great information, thank you. As an arachnophobic I can pretty much guarantee that I'll never be camping there...EVER
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 6:04 pm
  #40  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Kids are massively over exposed to IT, if I were a parent of a young child I would send them herehttp://thelondonacornschool.co.uk

As its not obvious, the school demands a total bar on TV and computers until late teens both at school and at home.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 6:55 pm
  #41  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by verystormy
Kids are massively over exposed to IT, if I were a parent of a young child I would send them herehttp://thelondonacornschool.co.uk

As its not obvious, the school demands a total bar on TV and computers until late teens both at school and at home.
My granddaughters would be in their element there then (their dad is keen on that)! Nice idea though
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 10:41 pm
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by Beoz
Memorising multiple things and completing multiple tasks to the best of your ability are two separate things.
Depending on what you mean by multiple tasks, they do share quite a bit in terms of demands on the brain.

It's been a while since I looked at the research, but iirc, multi-tasking has some pros but also some significant cons. Most people don't truly mentally multi-task in the common-sense understanding of the term though - they task switch at a rapid rate, often (almost always, unfortunately) with losses in performance to each task. Not being a multi-tasker used to be considered a rather negative thing and then it was observed that some of the most successful people have quite exclusive focus allowing a performance level that multi-tasking inhibits and that task switching has costs, increasingly so as task complexity rises.

I think people use the term multi-tasking to mean lots of different things though and in some contexts multi-tasking is just almost essential from a practical perspective, such as day-to-day parenting and also in many occupations. But when tasks are complex, multi-tasking is rarely the best approach.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 10:59 pm
  #43  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by verystormy
Kids are massively over exposed to IT, if I were a parent of a young child I would send them here Our School | The London Acorn School

As its not obvious, the school demands a total bar on TV and computers until late teens both at school and at home.
Isn't that a bit of a double-edged sword though? Surely if you end up with teens leaving school with minimal exposure to technology they are at a disadvantage in today's job market? Even entry level admin are expected to have a wide range of computer skills, and certainly our department wouldn't employ someone who had no experience or skills in that area.
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 11:07 pm
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by Dorothy
I can count the times on 1 finger that I've seen a snake. And that was flat across the road about 50 km from where I live, near a nature reserve. As for spiders, they're no different to spiders anywhere. Use some common sense and you won't get bitten. It's not as if they lie in wait for some unsuspecting person so they can bite them.
I was brought up in the Queensland bush where poisonous snakes and spiders abounded, and, later, in Brisbane. My educated guess is that we three boys encountered (meaning, saw at close quarters) five hundred poisonous snakes and a hundred poisonous spiders altogether, and were bitten zero and zero times, respectively. Maybe we were just lucky: none of my family has ever been bitten by a puff adder in England, either. Or even a fox!
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Old Jun 18th 2017, 11:23 pm
  #45  
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Default Re: How outdoorsie is Melbourne/Brisbane REALLY for a family?

Originally Posted by Pollyana
Isn't that a bit of a double-edged sword though? Surely if you end up with teens leaving school with minimal exposure to technology they are at a disadvantage in today's job market? Even entry level admin are expected to have a wide range of computer skills, and certainly our department wouldn't employ someone who had no experience or skills in that area.
I'd suggest suicidal, given where we are. It's the typical issue of parents wanting to inflict how they were bought up on their kids - 3Rs etc - equipping them for a world that's passed (if it ever existed) rather than where they are going to live.

If anything, things need to move in the opposite direction, jettisoning aspects of schooling that are massively out of date and bringing in not only a familiarity with technology, but also group working, synthesis of existing knowledge, etc. Kids should get extra marks for copying (with understanding) and not reinventing the wheel, not penalised for 'plagiarism'.
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