We don't need better environmental policies???
This morning I woke up at 8 am because it was too hot to sleep. I usually sleep a good couple hours beyond 8...
Later, I was sweating over making lunch because there was absolutely no breeze blowing.
Right now, it is cold, windy, and raining. Every few minutes the deluge is accompanied by hail the size of super gum balls. HAIL. It's the middle of summer. And it's hailing.
I was supposed to go out to Luna Park later to ride some roller coasters. Perhaps rushing around on big metal rails is an idea best kept for a summer day.
Oh wait, it is summer. Kind of.
I've got a lov-e-ly bunch of coconuts...
The next batch of photos from the Queensland trip is up.
Go look. The four of us look hot.
In other news, I've been typing and editing my thesis like a fiend. Like some cracked out thesis fiend. (They do *so* exist.) I haven't forgotten about actually telling you about my Queensland trip. Not that you care anymore since it was, like, two months ago. But for my own ego, I will pretend you still care.
Next week, I go to Adelaide for the festival and fringe festival. And then I come back and do my show shortly thereafter. And then I have two months to finish the major typing of my thesis. Somehow it's over half finished (at about 17,000 words) and yet, I still have the majority of it to do. How's that math for ya?
Come on, Aussie!
No whimsical stories from Bob Costas here.
The Olympics here are about seeing the Aussies compete. Not about seeing them win. Because they don't. Not in the Winter Olympics, anyway. Until these games, the Australians had only ever won 4 total medals in the Winter games. Two gold and two bronze. Ever.
They do really well in the summer games - the sunshine and beach culture does wonders for the swimmers. It's too bad for them there isn't a Summer Olympics category for life guarding. Seriously - on Bondi Beach, they save like 3000 people a summer from sharks, strong currents, and tiny speedos.
So you understand that it was a big deal when an Aussie won a gold these games in one of the skiiing events. But for some reason, it wasn't *that* big a deal. His face isn't all over the news and I have yet to see one commemorative pin with his face on it. My guess is that because the Aussies feel like they are so sporty anyway, that they honestly do have a good chance at gold in every event, that to make a big deal out of this guy winning would be like admitting that they'd only ever won an event twice before.
The announcers are hysterical. No major attempt at impartiality. We hear a few stories of the individual (Aussie) athletes - like this guy who was one of the flag bearers at the Sydney games and decided he wanted to be an athlete. So over the next four years, he sold his house, his car, his wife, lost his job and made it into the skeleton event. Good for him. The announcers were cheering him on the whole way. When his time checks along the track showed he was falling further and further down the ranks, the announcers would say, "He's only two-tenths of a second behind. He can still make it up. Come on, Shawn-ie!" When another country's competitor was hundredths of a second behind, though, they'd say, "Aw, he's dipped out now..."
My favorite, though, was watching one of the skiing events and someone had done really well, and the announcer says, "Well, that should be enough to keep the Americans from getting any medals, I reckon." It was still early. And there were plenty of other countries that would be stopped from getting medals if, in fact, that's what happened when the event ended AN HOUR later. Why you got to go pickin' on the Americans, huh? (Most of the time they tolerate the Americans just as well as they tolerate anyone else who's beating them. Which in the Winter Games is usually most teams.)
It's great when they have an Aussie commentator with an American one, because they almost always disagree. On air. And sometimes fight about it.
While there's only one channel playing the Olympics (and limited hours, at that), you can pay for up to seven channels, plus have another free channel, to watch the
Commonwealth Games that will be starting in Melbourne shortly after the Olympics end. Why is that a bigger deal here? Because those games have lots of "summer" sports like swimming, track and field, and gymnastics - and the Aussies are great at those.
The other day, Christine, Kim, Andrew, and I went down to Lygon St to the Readings bookstore for the launch of my advisor's book. Shockingly, we were running a little late. Shockingly, we were running late because I had no idea what time it was while we were sitting in the apartment talking about sorority rules and eating corn chips. Of course.
We roll into the bookstore about 15 minutes late, but it doesn't matter because everyone is still standing around drinking wine, throwing around polysyllabic academic jargon, and looking continental. The launch speakers started a bit later and we enjoyed ourselves, hearing about circus aerialists and body performance and the state of fringe arts.
The whole time we were rushing to get there, we would dart in between cars, not waiting for lights to change, and made general pedestrian nuisances of ourselves. On the way back we hit a gelato place (Lygon St is very Italian), and ended up with about 9 different flavors between our three cups.
Walking back, we were absorbed by the ice cream. Stopping in the middle of the street. On an island. Just eating. We had forgotten about walking, and had unintentionally taken up residence on this strip of pavement. Five minutes later Kim says, "Umm, guys? I think we can cross now." We look up from our gelato and realize we got a little...distracted. Apparently we'd used up all our traffic-dashing points earlier.
I don't want to be rushed into anything...
I posted the second group of Queensland photos, from the time in Airlie Beach.
http://aussiehalley.shutterfly.comAs your unreliable narrator, I realize you have no reason to believe me, but the rest should be coming shortly, along with some blurby goodness about the trip.
Things...
Things that drive me crazy: The grocery stores only carrying frozen pizzas with meat on them.
Perhaps it's possible that some people don't want pig chunks on their pizza.
No? Okay. Super. Thanks.
Things that make me happy: Hearing the news say that Bush knows everyone hates him.
Perhaps it's also possible that I'm paraphrasing. But they definitely said something about the American people thinking he's doing a bad job and that his approval rating is at 35%.
I'd like everyone now to take a moment and send happy thoughts/ pray/ click your heals together three times that A) I can find a non-meat-tastic pizza, and B) the disapproving 65% vote that way next time.
And yes, pizza before politics. As the world should be.
By the way, if anyone can figure out how to send me one of those frozen Amy's Natural Cheese-Free Roasted Veggie Pizzas, you will earn a million good karma points. Redeemable for eternal bliss or one of those really big stuffed animals you see at the carnivals. Up to you.
