Thursday, November 29, 2007

I Vote Therefore I Am?


I meant to mention this as soon as I had done it, but well, as usual time got away from me. Last weekend was the Australian general election and I did my duty as a new(ish) Australian citizen by voting. Of course the privilege of playing a part in the democratic election of government in a country you were not born in is taken very seriously by most immigrants – especially if they are relatively new to the place. So, with a fair amount of pride I made my way to the nearest polling station on Saturday morning and stood in a snaking line which passed the obligatory sausage sizzle table, beneath the burning Australian sun and waited to perform my civic duty.

In the UK, if I had felt so inclined, I may have exercised my right to abstain from voting, however here, there are no such rights – everyone over the age of eighteen has to vote. How do they make you do that? Well if you don’t get your name ticked off the electoral roll, which is done when you turn at the polling station, you are slapped with a $50 fine, unless you can prove there was no way you could have made it. This is of course a great incentive to make people play a part in the election of a new government or the return of the existing one. You have to have very strong convictions to say “No, I refuse to vote as all politicians are untrustworthy” or words to that effect and not turn up - $50 buys a lot of beer…

Friday, November 23, 2007

Radio Wasteland

Today is a dark day for Australian radio, it marks the end of one of this country’s best comedy shows. ‘Get This’ with Tony Martin, Ed Kavalee and Richard Marsland on the Triple M radio network was broadcast for the last time this afternoon after just under two years on air. It was axed by Triple M who cited various ‘production reasons’, even though it had the highest listening figures of any show on the station. By way of protest for this unforgivable act, I for one will never listen to Triple M again. ‘Get This’ was the most irreverent alternative comedy show on commercial radio in this country and it’s loss has dealt a blow to quality programming. ‘Get This’ was the proverbial breath of fresh air in a stagnant sea of unimaginative and predictable radio (please forgive the mixed metaphor).

As the final echoes of ‘Get This’ recede into the ether, I know I am not the only one who has hit the off button on Triple M for good.

RIP ‘Get This’.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Look Up...

A recent gardening experience has reminded me that I haven’t actually mentioned any stories regarding Australian spiders on this blog. I suppose the ‘bizarre fauna of Australia’ type post is only of any interest to non- Aussies, as many of those who grow up here are not really that bothered about random encounters with the country’s various selection of often dangerous, or at the least nasty looking, arachnids. However the locals do love to tell newcomers apocryphal stories of spider attacks and ambushes, especially to foreigners. This, I have deduced through experience, is done solely to extract a terrified reaction out of said newcomer and thus a good laugh for themselves. My favourite of this type of story involves the large huntsman spider which is I think one of the more vsually shocking spiders to come across, with a span of up six inches and more. Anyway, the story involves a driver who flicks down the sun visor whilst driving, but nestled between the sun visor and the cars roof lining is a large huntsman. The spider drops from its hiding place and lands on the lap of the driver. The shock of having a large, fast moving spider and on the lap causes the driver to swerve and loose control of the car resulting in an accident. Now although this story is told across the country and is almost mythical in status, this does actually happen, and although it hasn’t happened to me (yet) it has happened to someone I know, although they managed to retain control of the car.

Luckily the Huntsman is not a particularly dangerous spider, you wouldn’t come to any adverse harm if you were attacked, however, if you happen to crash as a result of a close encounter that fact won’t be too much of a comfort. In fact the Huntsman is likely to fall you almost anywhere. They mainly live in narrow spaces between the bark of a tree and the trunk and are quite flat to allow this – this also means they are quite adept to finding their way into houses. Often I have woken to find a large black spider shape in the bedroom, kitchen or bathroom. Finding yourself in the shower only to look up once the water is running to find a Huntsman on the ceiling directly above your head can be memorable experience. They are a heavy spider and not particular good at retaining their grip on a slippery surface, say the damp piece of ceiling above a running shower. A shower under these circumstances is usually a quick shower. Another favourite Huntsman trick is to drop on you as you open an outside door. They sometimes sit half on the door and half on the door frame. When the door is opened they are dislodged, and if you are particularly unlucky and get the timing wrong, they drop right on top on you; again the shock value when this happens can be considerable.

Seems I have waffled on too much in this post, so the tale of my recent gardening encounter with an antipodean arachnid will have to wait until my next post.