It’s great to be back home. Here are some reflections on life that have made me be grateful to be back in Sydney after such a long trip.
ROZELLE BUS 440 TUESDAY NIGHT
Although the recent Trans Siberian Railway trip was quite an experience, there are certain aspects of suburban bus travel in Sydney that make me realise that even a bus trip can be quite entertaining. I reckon Sydney bus drivers and commuters are generally a very good bunch of people. There seems to be a lot of harmony on a Sydney bus in comparison to a long journey across 4,000 miles on the Trans Siberian Railway, where there are lots of opportunities to get on the nerves of other passengers and leaders.
A case in point is a recent trip on a 440 bus from Sydney University to Rozelle. Just another evening of people going home on the bus, but the weather is starting to move beyond sub zero Siberian weather – Sydney has had a really cold winter. The warmer weather means that the young spunky people of Inner West Sydney are starting to wear skimpy clothing. Quite an opportunity for middle aged bus drivers and bored commuters. One girl enters the bus in a very skimpy outfit that provided ample opportunities for people to peer down her cleavage if she bends down. Even though I am not into (girl) cleavage, I reckon I may have looked at her cleavage. I was mightily impressed by our fun-loving bus driver who deliberately dropped some coins when he handed the change back to her. The coins fell all over the floor and he apologised profusely. But everyone got to see her bend down and scramble for all the coins. I thought the bus driver’s eyes were going to fall out of his head, as he got a series of paranoramic cleavage opportunities. Good on him, as bus drivers need to put up with so much shit as part of the work that they do in their job description.
ELECTION TIME – LOCAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS, AND CLOVER MOORE.
Australian citizens have an unusual situation where it is not only your right, but also your responsibility to vote. Last weekend was devoted to local council elections in NSW. This is one of the most underwhelming things to make compulsory in society…. voting for local councils. I am wondering whether we should just have a vote to decide whether we should outsource our local councils to private enterprise, as they are mainly responsible for collecting the rubbish on the street, running parking meters and charging parking fines and running the library up the street (that no one ever uses, as you can get bad diseases from books that have been read by other people). I’m not sure why we need to vote on these issues…. If we did privatise local council, we would not have to put up with all the ugly posters in the streets. Local council politicians generally have a good face for radio, and they desperately need to find a better hairdresser. I have never seen so many bad haircuts plastered all over the streets of Sydney as we have had in this last election. Maybe I need to think about this further as maybe all Australian politicians are following the lead of our PM Rudd who has one of the worst haircuts in the world.
In any case, it is lucky that we have Clover Moore in the city of Sydney as she is quite a celebrity who wears rather fabulous dog collars. Clover has done so much for Sydney in the past four years. We received fridge magnets about being security conscious, in addition to getting a list of things that we should buy in case of a terrorist attack. That’s why I voted for her this time around - Clover also does fabulous shows in our suburb every quarter, where we get a free lamington, a coffee (or orange juice) and a power point presentation on what she is doing. We also get to see lots of our neighbours ask lots of stupid irrelevant questions, where Clover will tear them apart while being ever so diplomatic. (Note for other politicians: if you do a wine tasting show, you will be able to win lots of votes in our suburb).
Anyway I digress.
Clover needs to have a chat to the Australian Electoral Commission as the local polling booth at the RPA Hospital happens to be located in the local methodone clinic. This does not give voters a very good impression of the world, as they need to fight their way through all the local methodone dependent characters in our local area, before they are decifing who to vote for. This is quite a contrast to all the little country towns and inconsequential suburbs where the local polling booth is located in a local school… how boring. At least inner city people have an opportunity to visit their local methadone clinic in order to do their compulsory vote… I’m not sure that the AEC will provide you with compensation if you get spiked by a stray needle when you are doing your compulsory vote. The legal issues could be really interesting… Anyway methadone clinics are not a good experience when you are pondering who to vote for. Why can’t they re-locate our local polling booth into the maternity ward at RPA Hospital, as it would give the voters a chance to vote in a more pleasant environment.
Enough said…. in any case I am glad to be back home and away from Russia…
