Good news!

The bruises have gone! :P

Political Cuckoo

Yesterday was election day here in Australia. The incumbent Liberal party were knocked out of power by the ALP (Australian Labor Party).

The seat of North Sydney (where I currently reside) remained Liberal; The sitting member, Joe Hockey looking rather nervous on Channel 7 as his role as political pundit forced him to be both happy that he had kept his seat, and sombre as his party failed to reach the 76 seats required to stay in power whilst his leader (John Howard) lost his seat to Labor.

I've tried to remain non-partisan in this election; I've spoken to anyone I can find over the course of the last few weeks who has a view on the parties, and I've tried to learn about the important political issues: Coal vs Nuclear, Industrial Relations (IR) laws, "Working Choices" etc.

Last night, I grew tired of watching the election coverage* and went for a walk. I came across a Chanel 9 OB truck and went closer to investigate. The local Labor candidate was having a party in a restaurant.

Now, I hadn't had my dinner, and I was in the mood for some mischief.

Using what little Australian political knowledge I had gleaned, combined with my social engineering skills, I blagged my way in and, like all good parasites, ate their food and drank their beer. Whilst politely smiling to blend in, I was shocked by just how militant they were - incredibly pro-unions and very much socialist. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and whilst my belly was full, I had to endure them ranting to each other.

When Howard gave his farewell speech (which was gracious and polite to both his party and the newly elected government), the activists booed and hissed; I was glad to escape!

Still, it was an amusing evening. Nothing beats a good bit of gatecrashing, especially when there's free food and drink :D

If The ALP holds the same views all the way to the top of their party, I feel sorry for the Australians. It's likely to be a turbulent few years :/

*Election coverage was, well, interesting. The owner of the apartment was watching a certain channel that shall remain nameless. Said channel's corporate brand is red, and rather than doing the sensible thing of going for a neutral colour, their red status update DOGs were misleading and confusing, as to the casual observer, the whole election revolved around Labor.
I would rant about the awful sound quality, but then that wouldn't give me time to complain about the use of the somewhat dizzy breakfast show presenters to lead the show :/ - Can you imagine Ant & Dec leading Newsnight?!

Blue Mountains attempt #2

Yesterday, I made attempt #2 to scale the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the lizards were lazing on rocks. Arriving at Lawson railway station, I follow the signs to the local nature reserve.

Climbing through the undergrowth, through tracks that were so overgrown as to be unregognisable in places, I feel a sense of calm come over me as all my cares drift away into the forest.

Presently, I discovered a tall, beautiful waterfall. In two parts, the water fell from fifty metres up onto a plateau then dropped a final ten metres. The track led down to it, so I approached, camera in hand.

Mr Brutch, my militant A-level geography teacher taught me many things* about waterfalls; how they retreat over the years, how the constant patter of water on the rocks below leads to changes in shape and the sorts of creatures that revel in the pools.

One thing he didn't teach me was that the constant patter of water on the rocks below leads to very slippery rocks. The tranquil calm of the forest momentarily held its breath as a bellow of 'ArrrrgFUDDDDGE!' rang out and echoed off the valley walls.

Down I went onto the thin layer of sludge that covered the rocks next to the waterfall. Alas there I was not to end, as my friction co-efficient remained low and I slid down the rocks and into the crystal clear waters of the waterfall's pool. A Timotei moment it was not. Think more along the lines of Indian Jones falling down a jungle chute.

Thankfully I managed to scramble out of the pool with only my pride damaged. I made my way back to the train station. Once on the 2.5hr train journey back, I sat there as quietly as I could reading my book. Even so, I suspect that I deafened the entire carriage with the malodorous cacophony of the primordial ooze what covered my back and behind.

This morning, it turns out that it wasn't only my pride that was damaged; I have a pleasantly purple and black posterior too :/

Don't go chasing waterfalls!


* well, not strictly true as I only received a 'D' for A-level geography

360° Blogging - Your chance to influence me! (Well, this blog)

Well, I've rattled on for 50 or so entries. As 50 is a nice round number, it seems appropriate to celebrate by turning the tables.

• Is there anything you think I've missed?
• Do you have unanswered questions?

If so, post a comment and I'll do my best to answer every one that I am legally allowed to do. The only rule is please don't anon-o-post :)

Greg

Sunday: Marches, Sign Language, Cinema

Today I decided to explore the eastern side of central Sydney. Up until today, I've mostly spent my time on the George Street side of town.

I made my way to Elisabeth Street to discover that the side-roads were all blocked off. It turned out that today was an Environmental March day. As I didn't have much planned until the cinema in the evening, I waited for the march to arrive near a set of bus stops.

Signing Kerfuffles
After a few minutes, some people wandered past having been ushered around the corner to where the buses were re-routed. A deaf chap, presuming I wanted a bus pointed to the corner.
When I signed back the reply "Thanks, but I'm waiting for the crowd*" he was somewhat taken aback.

Asking if I was deaf, I signed "No, I'm British", which made him laugh, although it turns out that the sign I know for "British" actually means in a universal context "The country that I live in and we are in", thus he thought I was Australian until I replaced "British" with "English".

He then started ranting about how an environmental march would do no good, as it was "Vengence from above" (this took some sign-based explaining, as my signing skills are as rusty as errr, something very rusty left out in the rain). After that, he went into what appeared to be a rambling political rant (again, my signing wasn't up to following everything he said, but I got the key-words)

Now, don't get me wrong; I'm all for sensible political debate. However. He was clearly quite mad. At this point, I signed a thank-you goodbye and made my quick escape! I can now confirm that Auslan is very similar to BSL.

The March
Once I'd escaped the ranting, I waited for the march to arrive, so that I could take some photos. First a motorcade of police came past. They gave me rather dirty looks. It was only then that I remembered I'd thrown on my greenish Peace/War logo t-shirt at random this morning. Then the marchers wandered past, who also gave me dirty looks. This they stopped when I hid my nice red Starbucks cup in my bag. After that, they were happy for me to snap away. It's at times like this I could have done with my Canon350D, using its professional shape to bluff my way into asking the marchers probing questions.

Cinema
After a while, I grew bored of watching the marchers file past, so made my way to the cinema. Originally intending to watch Underdog, I chose instead Day Watch, which turned out to be:
a) Russian with endearing subtitles,
b) filled with vampires, blood and gore; and
c) very good.

If you get a chance to see it, do! It's a pleasant change from the clean Hollywood "Vampire/Good/Evil" genre; the Russians really know how to make something dark yet with comic undetones - Even the bodyswap halfway through was at the same time funnier than LiLo & Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday, and as black as the darkest night. Lots I didn't fully follow, as I haven't seen the first film (Night Watch), yet it kept me enthralled throughout.


* I didn't know the sign for "march", but "crowd" seemed to do the trick.

Taronga Zoo & Balmoral

Saturday, I visited Taronga zoo (photos to follow on Flickr). Looking at the map, it seemed a reasonable walk. Combine that with the overcast weather that we've had for the past week, and it seemed perfectly fine to walk it. Waking up at 11am, Mad dogs and Englishmen made their way out in the midday sun to Taronga. 8km of toastyness later I arrived.

Did I mention that I've never been a big fan of zoos? I always feel rather sorry for the animals kept in cages. The website suggested that Taronga was more of a safari-park (think ex-LegoLand Windsor Safari Park). Alas it wasn't to be. I've not seen a sadder bunch of animals in a long time :/
The only upside was the falconry display, where the birds seemed fit and focused.

Walking back, I stopped at Balmoral Beach, which was lovely and quiet with its own fairly tranquil rocky island. I'll be going back there again :)

The best bar in the world

I can confirm that I have found the best bar in the world. The rest of you can stop looking, as none can beat it. :P

Wandering into the local bar for a quiet drink, I sit there reading. Half an hour later, A Blues Brothers tribute band kick off* and the party begins.

Then, as if things couldn't be better already, during their interval, they play Kylie and the Aussies go wild!

I shall be returning :D

* A very good likeness, except there's three of them, and John Belushi is a woman, but their music was amazing!

Celebrating the Melbourne Cup

Today was the Melbourne Cup Horse Race. You think the Grand National is popular? Oh my goodness!

Today, the entire female population of Sydney went to work dressed for the races, with hats, fascinaters* and everything else that goes with such things.

Work had a 3 hour lunch outside on the dockside with champagne (I arrived early and got the task of preparing the such), food and beer. TVs were put against open windows so we could watch the race.

Half way through, the heavens opened!...










Whilst outside, I noticed that a pair of birds had set up nest on one of the horizontal poles of the sail covering, and that you could see the chicks being fed! Awwwww

* Behold! Greg the Fashionista! As some of you know, my long commute into work at the BBC meant that I could read The Metro from cover to cover. As such, my fashion knowledge is second to, er none.

Subliminal Noodles

Today I realised why I decided to bank with the National Australian Bank. It was all to do with a bold white sanserif, lowercase typestyle with a red star above... :)

Australian Politics

Political Graffiti

Until I arrived, I'd never paid much attention to Aussie politics, partly because there's enough of it back in the UK to keep me entertained, but mostly because UK news reports Aussie politics with minimal context, merely relaying the facts.

From what I've seen so far, the political scene shares as many similarities as it does differences with the UK. The most striking is the effect that compulsary voting has on politics; the political parties really target everyone, as everyone has to vote. There's no slant towards those who are more likely to vote, as in the UK, as everyone in Australia votes.

From speaking to people here, Howard (current Prime Minister [Lib]) is not popular with the younger generation, who feel he only offers empty promises. There's kerfuffles to do with winding down unions (legislation has been brought in to allow individuals to sign away their legal rights to certain things at work in return for more money... hmmm) The Labor* candidate, Rudd, apparently has more of a younger following and seems to be tending centre/centre right, similar to the current UK Labour government**.

It has been suggested to me that every time there's an election here, there's a terrorist threat or incident - the Bali bombings happened before an election and some other incidents have occured at election times too, pushing Howard back into office on each occasion. How true this is, I don't know :)

Things are starting to ramp up for the general election in a few weeks. I've been given leaflets from all parties, and coffee shops are having "bean polls".

* The word 'labour' is spelt correctly here (ie: with a ewe), but the political party of the same name chooses to remove said beastie.

** Yes, yes, contentious :P

Blue

Some trees are blue in Sydney.

Becoming Domestic in Australia

Yesterday, I cooked my first casserole!

Result was good, but I mis-calculated the timings and had to wait until midnight, looking hungrily at the oven :/