END IS NIGH FOR THE FUTURE

MORE people have hopped aboard it in fourteen years than three times Australia's population, and while they've thought they've flown over towns, plunged into icy caverns, found themselves in dormant volcanoes, zoomed through ancient valleys and dropped over terrifying cliffs, in all that time each has in fact travelled no more than just three metres.

ALL ABOARD WORLD’S LONGEST DAY TRIP

david ellis

ITS 4am and the alarm clock is going ape.

We tumble out of bed, shower, dress, and with hardly a word spoken, head for the Lido Restaurant where strong coffee may, just may, make us feel human.

Two hundred other hardy souls are already there, staring blankly at steaming coffee, or almost sullenly pushing scrambled eggs, pancakes and maple syrup around their plates. Few say much; a colleague mumbles “Morn’” as she stabs a fractious tomato that refuses to stay attached to her fork.

ENGINEERS SHOW THEIR INGENUITY, BRA NONE

ITS anyone’s guess how you explain to your wife that as a successful aircraft engineer you’ve been moved from building war planes to building the world’s first strapless bra for a busty Hollywood starlet named Jane Russell.