Thanksgiving - again.

Two years in, I'm going to repeat myself. Halloween sort of works in Sydney, even if it's out of context. Thanksgiving? Forget it. Australia should never even consider adopting another continent's holiday that falls at the wrong time of the year for celebrating harvest.

And while we're winding up for the Christmas season (unlike the US government, Australia's has more historical ties to the Anglican Church) - I've got nothing against Australians celebrating their religious holiday in the middle of the summer. What disturbs me though, is adopting winter solstice trappings for what is locally a summer solstice event (and they poke fun at POMs?!).

Australia seems only to have recently come to its senses in terms of locally appropriate celebrations surrounding winter solstice (you know - when it's cold and the days are short). Sydney's Festival of Lights is a fine beginning for what should be a season of holidays in the Southern Hemisphere, to brighten spirits on those dark days. Oh sure, I'm a newcomer here - Australia is going to do whatever the hell it wants. But my contribution to this cultural stew is to urge more locally appropriate holidays - holidays or celebrations that fit with local harvests and the solstices as they are locally experienced; not based on the opposite side of the planet. Stand up, Australia!

Sharks and bears

Yesterday, I was swimming at Bronte - two coves over. The water was wonderful. What's most amusing about the article below is Australians seem to have the same attitude towards sharks as hikers of the Appalachian trail have towards bears. They launched jetskis to shoo the shark away, and everyone was back in the water 35 minutes later. At Bronte, there were a fair number of bluebottles on the beach (aka Portugese Man of War), but I didn't see any in the water. They were also having a lifesaving club event, with about 30 participants swimming a fair distance out from the beach, with plenty of chaperones on boards. Third Shark sighting at Bondi

Guns, butter, freedom

The U.S. citizens who proudly wave around firearms as "their right!" are the same citizens who are proud that their country produces some of the finest jet fighters in the world. Their rhetoric is that they need these firearms to protect themselves against tyrannical government - as if the Queen of England might on a whim rummage through some old stockpiles and find redcoats with muskets to send to their door. They know in their hearts that their pea-shooters are irrelevant against a government with jet fighters and cruise missiles.

What they really won't say out loud is their fear is really of their neighbor, or the people in the neighborhood up the street, or across town; or of mob rule. Some of these people have never lived without the fear that the people in the other neighborhood will some day rise up and knock on their door, or fear that the country is filled with criminals just waiting for the right moment to take them out. So they can't possibly understand that "freedom" means more than needing to carry a firearm - that there might actually be freedom from the constant fear of whatever might be lurking outside ones doorstep.

These people will proclaim that they have the best democracy on earth, and their freedom to wave around a firearm is proof of it. Never mind that every evening their televisions bring them video examples of the worst governments on earth; scenes of people waving around firearms triumphantly because they have vanquished their neighbors. How alien is the notion that if democracy were truly successful, people wouldn't need firearms to protect themselves from their neighbors or the government; that the whole notion is that a compromise would have been reached towards democratic rules everyone could live with? And the government - which they elected is the one which they greatly fear? Again, it's the government their neighbors elected they fear - not the one they've happily bestowed with paramilitary equipment.

They might rationalize that the constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, it only allows for the pursuit of happiness. Yet could it not be possible for a democracy to create rules where, at the very least, firearms are not required to maintain the social fabric? There are a fair number of people who highly romanticize the frontier town; the old gunslinger who saves the town from the bully. They don't see themselves as the bully with the gun; they wait for the day they get to play hero. And they have no notion that perhaps by waving around their firearm, it just might be that they are the ones being the bully.

Proper Crow

The mewling of the Australian crows was amusing at first. But now there are a couple that hang out near our window occasionally. I've decided when they're around, I need to open the window and let them know what a proud crow sounds like. Link to American crow sounds.

Food Budget

When we were in San Francisco, Fay was a bit frustrated and befuddled by my restaurant habits. I tended to rotate between a fairly small number, spread across town. "You need to try new things!" She didn't understand that those restaurants were the result of at least two years of search - there was a price point, and there was a quality factor. The research involved food poisoning more than once with the goal to find the cheapest food that was still ok quality. If you eat out very often, the cost adds up quickly. Now, here in Sydney, two years in, I've really only settled on two places - sadly both chains. Sometimes I walk for hours past dozens of restaurants and nothing looks like it's in the range. It's largely a price thing - but if there's one thing worse than bad food, it's paying too much for bad food.

Last night's California roll? No wonder it was so cheap. There was no avocado in it.

Moved

Three guys and an undersized truck helped us move yesterday. The lead guy was from Australia, the others from France and Estonia here on working holiday visas. The working holiday visa system seems to be huge here, though I don't really have a good sense of the overall politics. I know from personal experience that the universities are making a lot of money from foreign students (both in Australia and in the US). I know there are a lot of companies downtown Sydney that cater to young people working and travelling (backpackers). I have no idea what percentage of these people end up becoming permanent residents or marrying a local; or whether, like in the US, almost all vegetable and fruit cultivation is handled by immigrant workers (in the US, a fair percentage of them being undocumented workers).

UK - just as many hoops?

Surprise conversation of the day... the guy giving us an estimate on a heating system emigrated from the UK four years ago. He did heating and plumbing in the UK, and he does that in Sydney. It turns out he had just as many hassles in terms of obtaining proper work qualifications. He was led to believe that he could easily get his license based on his UK license and education. Not so. Had to go back to school, now for three years to get the same qualifications. He also talked about the market size and mark-up of products. Certainly the market is smaller here, but it could be larger - more old homes in Sydney might have heat - if there weren't such a mark up and those protecting their share of the pie here. Of course, everyone wants those who are licensed to be competent - but he says the education here was not as extensive for gas systems - safer?