No Worries

Dear Family and Friends, 

“Jelena’s Dream Over” screamed the front page headline of the Melbourne Herald Sun. Jelena Dokic, ex Serbian now Australian, had just lost her match in the round of sixteen at the Australian Open Tennis Championship, and with it Australia lost its hope for a ‘home grown’ champ in this year’s event. Jelena bowed out to Russian Diana Safina, who in turn, lost in the final to Serena-does-my-ass-look-big-in-this-outfit Williams. Oops.

Australia is the only place I know where the prime space in newspapers is reserved for sporting news. Not just some days, but pretty much every day The Australian, The Age, and other national newspapers reserve space on their first page for sports, whether it be ‘footy’, Australian rules, cricket, golf or any other sport followed by sports mad Australians. News of lesser import, turmoil in the mid-East, the global economic meltdown, domestic woes, and national politics etc. find space on inside pages.

Well, g'day folks, I'm traveling again. 


I just spent a little over one week in Melbourne visiting with Lorraine and her family. It was great to see Greg, Supipi, Josh and, new to me, the delightful two year old Zara. Also great was the chance to reconnect with Supipi's extended Sri Lankan family. Special thanks to Sunil and Suwi for putting us up.

My visit coincided with the Australian Open and that is the current news story. But the other major story in Melbourne's media is the continuing drought that has afflicted this region for a few years now. On the flight in, one can see the whole countryside has become a blanket of scorched brown. Water reserves are down to 30% and water use restrictions now in place are extremely restrictive. The drought has been severe for some time but it has just gotten worse. The forecast for the week of the Open was for five days of over 40 degrees, making this the most severe heat wave since 1903. Reports were that the temperature on the surface of the Rod Laver Arena where the Open is being played reached an unimaginable 65 degrees. I don’t even know whether I believe that.

Moreover, rainfall in January was only .8mm, making it the lowest amount recorded in that month over the past 158 years. The temperature on January 28^th felt as hot as a kiln for firing porcelain. Actually it was 43.4 degrees, but certainly that is the hottest temperature I have ever experienced. How hot was it? It was so hot just the thought of going outside can make you weak; it was so hot the heat buckled commuter rail lines stranding 100,000 commuters; it was so hot thousands of homes lost power from demand overload (and hence no air-conditioning); it was so hot even ice cubes in your drink were hot. And it was so hot there were several Elvis sightings. Strewth.

Setting all that aside, Melbourne is a treat to visit. Clean, friendly, great beaches, lots of parks, and many excellent restaurants. The city is regularly and justifiably ranked number one or two as the most livable in the world. We spent most of our time just visiting but we did go into the city for a wander around the famous Victoria Market and through the always interesting arcades. We visited the Botanical Gardens on Australia Day; the big draw that day was an antique car show with several hundred old beauties on display. I also had a chance to play one round of golf with Greg, a most enjoyable round. I almost had an eagle on the 14th hole. Damn, if only it had been a par 11.

One of the appealing things about Australian restaurants is you are generally permitted to BYOB, a nice option given the huge selection of inexpensive Aussie wines available. Aside from ‘Dan Murphy’s’, a major wine retailer who is always featuring blow out deals, wines can be bought on line and delivered anywhere in Australia for $6.50 per case. Deals include 3 cases of Banrock Station Petit Verdot for $120 (just over $3 per bottle), New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc for under $8 per bottle, old vine cabs or shiraz from Barossa for under $10. And remember you can knock 10 to 15% off that to get to the price in Canadian dollars.

We all know Aussies for their colourful language particularly their penchant for using diminutives and abbreviations. Hence we have "unie' for university, 'ute' for utility truck, 'mandie' for mandarin orange etc. We must now add 'FLOTUS'. That's code in the newspapers for Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States. Aussies are also renowned for their love of beer and their capacity to consume it. I saw two T-shirts that pretty much summarized their commitment to brew. A young guy had one on that read "Not tonight ladies, I'm going to get drunk" more or less summing up his priorities. The second I noted read "The liver is evil and must be punished".

While we were there, Australia announced their 'Australian of the Year' award on Australia Day, January 26th. The recipient is Professor Mick Dodson an Indigenous Australian leader. Dodson has apparently been a prominent advocate for land rights and other issues for indigenous peoples in Australia his whole life. Within moments of accepting the award he continued his campaign, calling for a change in the date of Australia Day, saying Australia could "do better" than commemorating the day the first fleet carrying 700 prisoners arrived at Sydney Cove. He added "Many of our people call it invasion day, the day in which our world came crashing down", bringing injustice, a land grab and genocide. His suggestion is not being particularly well received by the broader population and reaction almost pushed sports off the front page.

Aussies love cricket almost more than any other sport. So another front page sports story was of the Australian National cricket team member, Andrew Symonds, who called a Kiwi opponent “a lump of shit” on a radio interview. You do have to admire his candor. Not the usual stuff of "giving it 110%", or "pulling their pants on one leg at a time" as we get from our athletes at home. But the remarks did cause a bit of an uproar. The Australian Board of Cricket acknowledged the remarks to have been intended to be light hearted, but they did consider them “careless”, and they are considering sanctions. In his defense it was noted that he was a little drunk, a reasonable enough defense in Australia. Moreover, the maligned Kiwi is quoted as saying it didn’t bother him. It was front page news, but it really only had legs for one day.

Well that's about it. Lorraine and I are off to Singapore, Bali and Lombok. So as Zara says "I have to run". I hope you are all well and that you have a wonderful 2009. Regards to all.

Merv.