A few months back a Dubbo magistrate annoyed about mobile phones ringing in his courtroom told the gallery to switch them off or else he’d get the sheriff’s officer to confiscate and keep them.

The warning came after four phones rang that morning. So, mobiles have become a major nuisance everywhere. Next time you’re down town you’ll see heads stuck in them everywhere and they’re all suffering from mobile addiction.

No doubt Fred is posting he’s having a pub lunch, Jane is describing her new purple nail polish, Mary is scanning friends’ pages for gossip and Bill is ‘liking’ complaints about rugby league referees.

And if you don’t jump out of the way to avoid these internet surfers on footpaths in the CBD or in the supermarket you’ll get knocked over while they’re glued to their small screens without a single glance where they’re going. Who wants to listen to one-sided conversations disrupting everything from schools, funeral and church services to concerts and dining in restaurants. The phone use in public places is annoying, intrusive, unbecoming and downright rude. So, that’s how smartphones affect you. It’s called modern technology.

The French dusted off their pushbikes last Sunday when Paris held its ‘la journee sans voiture’, or car-free day. Cars were banned from five Paris city areas, including the Champs-Élysées and the Eiffel Tower, between 11am and 6pm with exceptions for emergency vehicles, ambulances, police cars, buses, cabs and private hire that were authorised to drive at 30km/h.

Like previous years, the success was so huge that people held picnics in the streets.

The day is designed to promote greener commuting, help reduce traffic congestion and encourage people to ride bikes just like the council is trying to do in Orange. France has also trialled a scheme with companies paying their employees 0.25 euros (40 cents) a kilometre to ride to work.

That’s not a bad idea because we could get rid of more than 400 of single occupant cars parked in streets around the central business district every day by convincing bosses to pay their staff, say, 40 cents a kilometre to ride to work rather than drive.

Can you imagine the chaos? Hundreds of bike riders weaving in and out of our aggressive drivers every morning and then again at knock-off time in the afternoon. It might get rid of some cars but instead could create traffic nightmares. And there’d be cyclists lying on the road everywhere.

It’s generally accepted Orange was named after the Dutch Prince of Orange by Surveyor-General and explorer Thomas Mitchell after Mitchell and he were aides-de-camp on the Duke of Wellington’s staff in the Peninsular war against Napoleon.

But there’s another less-accepted theory that Governor-General Augustus Fitzroy visiting the district in 1846 saw wattle in full bloom everywhere and was so impressed he said ‘call it Orange...’

Well, the naming theory was probably wrong but there’s no doubt the district looks impressive with the wattle now in full bloom.

You can go out any road and our national green and gold floral emblem is dazzling to the eye and Wattle Day was three weeks ago.