photos: happy halloween

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.

public service announcement: carols under the bridge

Get ready, guys, this year's Carols Under the Bridge service is coming up on Saturday, December 14.  There's jazz around 5 pm followed by awesome carols around 7 pm.  Come on out, bring your friends, put it on your calendar now -- it's always a fantastic time!

comic: from the doghouse diaries

This hits eerily close to home in more ways than one ...

(Obviously this isn't my work ... it comes from The Doghouse Diaries.)

quicko: ausmerica

Okay, normal people might think this is a bit tacky and/or disrespectful to both countries involved ... but I'm feeling a bit sentimental and it kind of feels like a pictorial representation of my life ... and if this isn't the right blog for it, I don't know what is ... it's pretty much the theme in 9 pithy letters.

quicko: pumpkins!

I was thrilled to see pumpkins on sale today -- real good-sized, appropriately oranged pumpkins!  Australians aren't big into Halloween, but it was fun to find a taste of home in my friendly neighborhood Coles.

photo: all dressed up for a real date :)

We don't get to have real dates very often, so I get quite excited when we do!  I got spoiled and taken to Ten Litchfield, which is a lovely local Darwin restaurant run by a man named Tim.  Garry got crocodile so I could try some but not have to eat too much of it -- so now I can officially say I've eaten crocodile!  There was also a baby freshwater crocodile in an aquarium at the entrance, which I looked at, but still found disconcerting despite Garry's assurances that a freshie would "only" grow to 3 meters (roughly 3 yards) and never be big enough to kill me.  I'm still not convinced I'd ever want to encounter a 3 yard-long reptile with a jaw and a vast array of incisors, no matter how harmless it was ... the one in the tank was closer to a foot and I was still quite happy to say hello from a glass-encrusted distance.

Besides its pet, Ten Litchfield also regularly has a magician/sleight of hand artist coming table to table to perform various tricks.  We saw two card tricks ... one more impressive than the other, though we'd both worked out how both of them worked by the time he left our table.  It was still fun though and definitely a great date!