photos: canberra

So, I decided it was about time I go visit Australia's capital -- Canberra.  Everyone's always told me I needn't bother going and, really, it's only because I've been here for six years that I thought I ought to go while I still was near at hand.  It was -- much as expected.  The highlight was probably that Kiril let me drive his car into it (!!) ... and Parliament House wasn't bad either.  We just took a day trip, so we saw Parliament House (and took the tour), most of the embassies and the War Memorial.  Highlights below!

quicko: 000

My students got an official police presentation the other day, and while I knew most of what he said (except that jaywalking is a $66 fine ... not leaving a pub when asked is $550 ... and selling alcohol to minors is $5500), I came to the realization that the Australian 000 is a little more ... relaxed ... than the American 911.  It's not that 000 doesn't get you help fast (I've never called, but from what I hear, it does), but that you can call it a bit more liberally.  The way the officer phrased it was that if anything bad's currently happening, you can go ahead and call.  So, if someone snatches your bag and runs down the street with it, you should definitely call.  If you're an employee in a bakery and someone is stealing a donut, you can call.  And so on.  Maybe these weren't the best examples, but I felt like it was definitely okay to call 000 for much more trivial matters than I had been taught to in America -- where it's strictly for emergencies, and there are penalties for calling in cases of non-emergency.  Here, the officer said as long as you're calling in good faith (he did say people calling up to complain about leaves in their driveway was a call they'd received that was not considered an emergency and that was wrong), there aren't any repercussions.

quicko: election upcoming

So this last weekend the Australian government announced an election.  For September.  2013.

(Yep, that'd be roughly a month out.)

Somehow, suddenly, it hit someone:  time to vote!  Make haste, make haste!

And so, on September 7, all Australians are required to vote.

At least this time they get to vote instead of having the leaders of various parties go changing it all around on them willy-nilly some drizzly (or sunny, it doesn't really seem to matter) morning.  Wonder how long it'll all last this time.

Incidentally, it is a pretty contentious decision coming up.  Basically (as I think is usually the case worldwide) nobody remotely likes either of the two major candidates (though, again, it's not the candidates, but the party, the people are voting for ... though you wouldn't really know that from the campaigns ... not that I've actually really noticed either campaign, but my friends are certainly vocal in their sentiments).  Not sure who will win, but I get the impression nobody's going to be happy about it.

quicko: no election day holiday

In Australia, where voting in mandatory, there is no federal holiday for election day.  In America, where it's not, there is.  (The first Tuesday in November.)

quicko: territory day

Today is Territory Day!

I'm not sure most Australians are aware of this, (it's just occurred to me I'm not even sure that Ohio has a state day, let alone when it is ... though I do know it became a state in 1803 ...) but July 1 is the day the Northern Territory celebrates as, I think, it's birthday.  There's lots of fireworks and fun and I just narrowly missed being there this year.  Maybe next.

quicko: political update

So, it is official:  Kevin Rudd is again the Prime Minister of Australia.  By last night it seems the decision had been made, and he was sworn in this morning.

In other news, Queensland won game two of the three game State of Origin series (it's one of the rugbies, but I forget which -- New South Wales is the competitor who won the first round), which up until quite recently I believed was a one game affair and was shocked to hear they were playing again so soon after the last one.  Now they'll be playing one more ... sometime soon.

quicko: politics

So it's all a bit confusing but ... Australia might have a new (old) Prime Minister.  Kevin Rudd might be back in power.  Or maybe not.  Potentially there are more newsworthy sources with a better idea than this blog ...

quicko: basic stats

Australia is the world's sixth biggest country by size, and its neighboring countries include Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and New Zealand.

quicko: officially ...

The full official name of Australia is "The Commonwealth of Australia."

quicko: big stuff

So I'm going to take a great, big huge group of ideas that I have no real knowledge of and clump them into one clumsy blog post:  pretty much everything with the government works way differently here.  Particularly I'm thinking of government programs and social security numbers (here, tax file numbers) and retirement savings plans and all that nitty gritty stuff ... yeah, some of the time I know how it works in America and some of the time I know how it works here ... and some of the time I just don't get it in either country.

quicko: politics

I really don't get much into politics in any country, but the (belated) buzz here at the moment is that Australia is having a (gasp, shock, horror) 9-month election campaign.  Now to those of us used to there pretty much never being a non-campaign moment, it's not such a shock.  To Australians, however, who are used to much shorter (say a month or two I think?) election campaigns, this is torture of a monumental proportion.

quicko: the first fleet

After all I've blogged about the adorable Sydney ferries, somehow it utterly escaped my notice that they're named after the ships of the First Fleet (the aptly named set of ships that were the first to come to Sydney from England in terms of settlement).  If I've listed the ferries correctly, they represent 9 of the original 11 (missing The Lady Penrhyn and The Prince of Wales).

They include all my favorites*:
Sirius
Supply
Fishburn
Scarborough
Friendship
Borrowdale
Golden Grove
Alexander
Charlotte

*Listed in order of my favorites, at least today :)

quicko: voting

There was an election this last weekend, at least in Sydney.  I'm not sure if it was a national, state or local sort of thing, but I'd gotten plenty of junk mail in the lead-up.  Didn't see too much else going on, so I'm assuming it was a reasonably minor election.

In contrast, of course, is the upcoming American election in November.  Now, I'm probably the one blogger you meet who wants to say absolutely nothing about politics, but is interested in how the different countries view voting.

In particular, Australians (like most of the rest of the world) tend to know way more about American politics than the average American.  I have friends who have been watching the national conventions and are mildly surprised to find that I haven't.

I guess I view the national conventions as something akin to the State of the Union address, but less important -- i.e., the sort of thing I would really only use as a fall-back plan if my other plans for the evening fell through and there wasn't a new episode of Big Bang Theory on.  At that point I might watch the State of the Union, but would be quite likely to read instead of watch the conventions.

Would you ever catch an American watching the equivalent of another country?  Okay, there's the odd politically-minded exception here and there, but by and large I've never heard of an American ever watching, say, the Russian equivalent (perhaps because it'd be in Russian?) or even the British or Canadian.

quicko: diggers

Australian term for soldiers, particularly those in World War I who were digging in the trenches.  Hence, the Harbord Diggers RSL overlooking Curl Curl isn't just an oddly named building as I'd assumed, but actually named in honor of soldiers (funny how that goes along with an RSL -- returned serviceman's league? (similar to a VFW)).

quicko: go left

After years of sidestepping recklessly back and forth between sides of the sidewalk when you're walking down the street, the Australian government has finally decided to do what Americans would have assumed people would have done naturally -- stay on the left!

In America, pedestrians just naturally veer right (since that's the side we drive on) when meeting another oncoming pedestrian.  In Australia, as much as you'd think everyone would just go left, in reality everyone usually just ends up in a bit of an awkward jumble.

But now the Labor (more left-wing) party in New South Wales has actually managed to push an official policy through that requires everyone to "go left."

It's basically going to be one of those laws along the lines of jaywalking -- on the books, but presumably rarely actually enforced.  I find it bizarre they've actually gone and made it official (crazy Australians!), but just in case you need to know, be sure to stay on the left when you're walking in NSW!

quicko: authority

Australians really aren't big on authority -- it's pretty much un-Australian.  Considering their historical roots, it's not an inexplicable jump.  I'm sure I could go on, but that's pretty much the gist of it.  Australians, good, authority, bad.

quicko: what's in an ABN?

I don't know the details, but it's an Australian Business Number.  Commonly bandied about, and something English teachers like to avoid at all costs.  (Number?!  Run!!!)

quicko: scheme

I'm also really convinced I've written about this before, but I can't seem to find a past post solely dedicated to it and I've run a tad bit dry of new ideas of late, so here goes:  scheme.  A ploy, a plot, a conniving, slimy, weasly, low-down sort of evil a scoundrel, a cad, a fly-by-night salesman, a highwayman, a music man would pull.  Here the government runs them regularly.  You'd think they'd try to hide that.  Or come up with a different name.  Or perhaps they're simply a bit more transparent where governmental policy is concerned?

quicko: menzies

Trivia question:  who was the longest serving Australian Prime Minister?  Answer:  Menzies, who shares his name with the infamous hotel at Wynyard that has put locks now also outside as well as on its lobby restrooms.  Honestly, I never did it any damage; all I wanted was a warm place to sit while I waited for my bus on cold nights!!

quicko: caesar augustus issued a decree ...

... that a census should be taken of the entire Australian world.

And so, with the rest of the country, on the night of, well, tonight, I filled in my electronic form so as not to face my not-so-electronic $150 fine for non-compliance.  And now, in 99 years, my relatives can go searching and find out that (gasp!) I was a poor English teacher.  How exciting!