U.S. Accounts

Today marks the first time I've been unable to establish an account for something in the U.S.
Required: U.S. driver's license (mine just expired) AND utility bill showing your name. Supposedly another document (passport) would suffice for the driver's license, but there is the element of proving you're a resident - which could also be faked by paying someone else's utility bill, if you were determined. Would they actually check the passport to see if you were inside the country? Probably not, but just in case, you could get a US driver's license and use that instead - which brings up why the federal government wants uniform standards on the issuance of driver's licenses (and the states have resisted, in part maybe because the feds aren't funding it?)

Otherwise, dealing with existing accounts has been a hassle (my tax forms said Austria, not Australia), but resolvable. Oddly, Australia is not on the list of countries from which an international account can be opened, in spite of the fact that Australia has a treaty to report bank deposits of all US citizens.

Bacon Rashers

Had to look this up, per Wikipedia. Rashers simply means thin slices. American bacon is actually pork belly slices. In Australia, pork bellies are sold as... pork belly. Pancetta is also pork belly, but smoked and dried. Back bacon is more expensive and meaty - the round part to the left is what's sold as bacon in Canada and Australia. In the States this is called Canadian bacon. In Australia (per Wikipedia) the belly is called American bacon, but frankly, I haven't seen much of it in stores. I have seen large hunks (not sliced) sold as pork belly. I overcooked this to bring out the crispy carcinogens and it tasted like home!

Easter. Again.

This week (I'm still not clear on what day) is EASTER for the Greek Orthodox Church. This brings up an aspect of Australia that I actually feel like protesting. OK, I don't really care that the Greek Orthodox may have a different calendar or way of calculating the exact date of this historical event that may or may not have happened and been misinterpreted. Their Greek interpretation may be closer than any English one, certainly.

No, what I feel like protesting in Australia is the alignment that happened between the Christian event calendar and the pagan event calendar, so that more pagans would be able to keep their holiday traditions and still become Christian. Cutting down an evergreen tree in the dead of winter and bringing it into the home - nice. Easter eggs and rabbits symbolizing both pagan fertility rites and the rebirth of Christ - in the SPRING. Yes, in the spring that makes sense. Stringing up lights to celebrate the winter solstice and compensate for the short days of winter - that's when my itchiness began. It makes absolutely no sense to hang out Christmas lights that don't come on until 9:30pm in the summer. Easter eggs in the fall? Ridiculous - but actually, maybe I'm wrong - are there any birds that migrate to Australia and lay eggs in April/May - which is Australian fall?? Unnecessary side-track - the egg thing was TOTALLY adopted, as were all these other traditions, from the Northern Hemisphere, where they made perfect sense. Here, they are just a reminder that we're not in Kansas anymore.

Did the Aboriginals celebrate any holidays? If so, while I've heard a few stories here and there, I have yet to hear of any holidays. For now, I would like to stick to what I know as universal - the solstices. The same day marks the event in both hemispheres. Sure, we can do colored eggs and Christmas trees, or whatever - but some of these things need to be put in their proper seasonal frame. I've heard there's a group that celebrates Christmas in July - they've got the season right, but why move a Christian "date" that's actually already been shifted to accomodate the pagan traditions? I could see doing this in that tiny patch of Australia that gets snow in July. Otherwise, it only reinforces my notion that the solar seasonal markers are what should be the basis for celebration.

Wildlife Corridors

We've moved about two miles, nicer house, nicer neighborhood. But one of the things I really miss about the old place is that it was a block away from the Cooks River trail. I think I need a wildlife corridor almost as much as the wildlife does. I can still walk 20 minutes and get to the Cooks River trail, but that would be 40 minutes round trip of annoying traffic noises just to get there and come back. The whole point is pleasant walking in a quasi-natural environment, not 40 minutes of annoying traffic for 2 minutes of relaxing greenery.

Earbuds are an essential tool to block out harsh, annoying urban noise (traffic, buses, overflying jets). Generally, I don't have the music or podcasts too loud, but when I'm walking near a busy road, it's surprising how much I have to turn up the volume to hear over traffic; passing buses. Sydney's established bicycle paths are a convoluted, sometimes incomprehensible meander. On occasion I've realized they are going out of the way to avoid a busy street or impassible intersection. But as convoluted as Sydney's neighborhood streets and network of roads are, they do present an opportunity for finding routes AWAY from the maddening noise and traffic. Perhaps rather than trying to specify the convoluted path best for a bicycle, maybe neighborhoods should do more to identify "quiet streets". These would be the streets where a car should EXPECT to get stuck behind a bicycle or see children playing in the street. Rather than channeling a bike onto a specific street, this would make larger swaths more visible, with smaller red zones where bicycles should expect trouble.

Of course "quiet streets" are not wildlife corridors, but they could potentially harbor more foliage and other signs that they are more friendly towards flesh and blood than metal and machinery. They wouldn't necessarily be bicycle commuter corridors either, because bicyclists on a mission can almost be as dangerous to foot traffic as automobiles. We had a couple of accidents in San Francisco where bicyclists hit pedestrians - including killing an elderly person. OK, so keep the bicycle routes, but also identify the quiet streets (which are sometimes obvious as the lines that aren't designated as major arteries). Unfortunately, creating more wildlife corridors is a challenge in highly developed suburbia. But designating quite streets and human corridors still remains a huge opportunity.

Sydney's Finest

When you use Australian google for "types of cockroaches in Sydney", nearly all of the first page entries are for pest control companies. Of course, most of them want to tell you all about cockroaches from the extermination perspective. So an exterminator says there are five types of cockroaches common in Sydney. Yeah. Plenty. I think I've seen two main types. There is the type that crawls up out of the drains (hopefully, when we remodel the house, the drains can be made less accessible?). The second type seems to just wander in off the street, as if they're taking a shortcut through the house and get distracted along the way. Maybe the remodel can also close up some cracks that these guys seem to walk right in. Anyway, the cockroach in the photo may have been drunk. He was just wandering around the street in broad daylight. Usually you see them scurrying around after dark.