Yeah so on Friday night we had this barbecue and Julian, Nicole and Ellen came round. Ellen is about to go off to Shanghai to run a bar and so we won't see her for a few years although it has to be said she moves in such rarified circles, and so do we, that we've probably seen her about twice in the last two years. Mia made a huge amount of food including this amazing orange rice dish which I have always enjoyed and always will. Luckily she made so much of it I was still eating it two days later (without a break ha ha) but I wish there was more of it. It was actually a really nice night. Nicole and Ellen have set themselves up as this kind of comedy duo with a set range of put-downs. When I say 'kind of' - I suppose I shouldn't.I should blog immediately something happens. That was two days ago and I can't remember much of it. You lose. I wonder if that nice expensive bottle of Margarer River cab sav had anything to do with it.
The next day I was at the Baillieu most of the afternoon trying to get this study guide written for the first year subject. It's looking OK though a bit conversational. I am trying to be exceptionally fair to all sides in, for instance, the History Wars where I do have very strong feelings. This means you end up writing things like 'many people would say' or 'it can be argued' - phrases that if a student used them in an essay I'd be circling them and writing harsh criticisms like 'passive'! But what can you do. I never use the term 'politically correct' but if I did I would say political correctness these days is all about pandering to red-faced blustering right wing shits who demand their untenable, transparently ludicrous biases be given equal space. If you are one of those red-faced blusterers, I know how that sentence would look but maybe you shouldn't be reading this anyway.
On Sunday morning I reported bright and early at Jacana wetlands to do my bit for Clean Up Australia Day. Not only was there no-one there, the whole area looked suspiciously clean. They'd done it without me! Cheated of my chance to tidy locally, I instead drove to Jack Roper reserve which is on the east side of Broady where I knew some official CUAD stuff was going down. I was issued with a sack and the instruction to do the lakefront (it's a lake but really it's a retarding basin to prevent flooding further down the creek, which is probably useful since the creek runs through Fawkner Cemetery). I filled three sacks, which felt good, and exchanged brief pleasantries with some of my fellow cleanuppers, which made me feel communityish which is what I really wanted. I saw a dead rat floating on its back (luckily I had already told God I was going to leave anything organic) and I collected many, many empty corn tins. I surmise corn must be part of the yabby-catching process? Don't really know. Also, there were a lot of empty flour bags around. Can't imagine what that's about.
One of the interesting bits was fishing plastic bags out of the water. There were a lot of shopping bags but also the kinds of bags used to contain salty snacks eg Smiths, Burger Rings etc. They become very attuned to the water and tear in the water when you try to get them out.
What I can't understand is why people put lids on bottles, then leave them lying around. It's like some kind of grand self-deception or zombie-ish going through the motions. They put the lid on to show they are not the kind of uncivillised moron who would throw a lid, then a bottle on the ground. So they neatly reunite them and then throw them on the ground. So when someone wants to retrieve and crush them they have to unscrew the lid.
I don' t actually think it's very constructive to clean up other people's stuff and curse them while doing it, however. We all make a big mess. While I'm cleaning up someone's mess in the Jack Roper reserve, someone else is tolerating, enduring or cleaning up mine.
I had an interesting experience later in the day with a car called Bwana. I was in our living room, which looks out over Jacana hill, and I saw a four-wheel drive parked on the hill (which is a public reserve). This infuriated me, partly because of course I have no time for 4WDs but I'd be infuriated anyway because (see recent post re: truck) I am sick of people driving motorised vehicles in the flamin' reserve. So I harnessed Millie and Charlie and walked up the hill to look at it. It was a new white 4WD and its number plate was, bizarrely and also annoyingly, BWANA. I walked around it and even took a picture of it with my phone. A little way down the hill was a middle aged man with three children. One of the children had a kite and I had noticed the kite a few hours earlier - before I'd seen Bwana (I feel like I'm giving a police statement). Anyway, I went up to the street and walked round to the other park entrance, and as I walked along Sunset Boulevard there, Bwana suddenly sped past me en route to Johnstone St.
Back in the park, I saw the kids were still there. Questions (no, this is not a comprehension test, just the things I wondered):
Did Bwana's owner know the kids?
Did Bwana's owner get freaked out by my looking at his car which he knew shouldn't have been parked there and speed off?
Am I the kind of suburban fussbudget who sees a conspiracy or for that matter a child molestor everywhere?
Since about three people a day use the reserve, why should I get so irritated when people drive their huge white porcelain tanks into it?
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