its a sad sunday morning here in australia and im not sure i have anything good to say. i ranted heartily on twitter last night watching the results of the federal election roll in, seeing the effect of sexist, racist, uninformed, dog whistle campaigning. we now have a prime minister who thinks women are objects for the male gaze, that asylum seeking is illegal, that the wealthy should be supported to go forth and multiply, that research should only be about extending the life span of baby boomers rather than fostering critical thinking or social debate. i could go on but its just awful beyond words. i cant even link to a good story about it, because our media is beyond the pale in this regard.
i havent voted for a major party in a long time. i’ve ben voting green for many years and i will keep doing so.
i dont believe labor has any idea what it stands for anymore, and the party that can talk about social justice at the same time that it implements the papua new guinea solution is no better than the party that wants to stop the boats. as far as im concerned, its a shame aboriginal people weren’t able to stop the boats 200 years ago. this race to the bottom in public life, the overtly mean spirited, racist, bigotted, cold heartedness of public discourse makes me ashamed to be australian right now. so i was pretty angry when i voted
i didnt even get a democracy sausage. i wanted to scrawl abusive messages on my ballot paper but i didnt, because we are lucky to have the vote here and i take it seriously. so i scrawled my numbers with a heavy hand and came home and made chocolate cake.
just because. its a sad end to an exhausting week. i drove down to canberra last sunday in a very fast car (not mine, the uni hires one for me when i travel)
i am a bit of a lead foot boy racer.
i like to drive fast. i went very fast in this car, and it was fun. no speeding ticket either, because i was wearing my boy racer cloak of invisibility. i went to canberra for the war memorial archives and i wrote about that on my work blog. it was frustrating but its turned out ok. i had a really really great time catching up with my friends george and bertie and their beautiful kids. george is heavily into quilting right now, which asha finds inconvenient
i cant hold the quilting against her, because she’s made me a beautiful blue and white one thats on my bed and i love it. it was really lovely to catch up with the kids, who are growing so fast and turning into lovely little people. it was a nice time of year to be in canberra too, heading into spring
but not too hot yet. it got warm here this week and i headed down to my other office for breakfast on thursday and got a head start on my suntan.
when i think about living anywhere else in the world, i think about how much i would miss this.
and then i think about the election results and cant wait to leave.
while i was in canberra i took myself out for breakfast at one of those swanky places in manuka where the pollies hang out but there was no one famous there. great eggs though.
then i went next door to the little yarn store they have there, because i knew she sold needles and i had her forage around for a while to find me the ones i wanted. 3mm tips with a really long cable. for a cardigan i said. oh my goodness she said, you’re brave, knitting a cardigan on 3mm needles. in 4 ply yarn even i said and she just shook her head. perhaps i am crazy
its pretty slow going but i have 8 rows on the needles now. i need another set of 3mms when i get to 12 rows so i can turn the hem and knit two rows together, unzipping that provisional cast on, and then switch to the main colour for the stripe pattern to start.
it takes me a long time to do a row, maybe 20 minutes knitting, 30 purling? so i’m in this one for the long haul!
im always happy when ive been away to come back to the dogs, and miss lila welcomed me home with her usual style, ripping the stuffing out of her bed.
sigh. she totally destroyed another one at trents house on friday. she also has a little rash on her head that wont go away, i need to take her to the vet this week. and possum is getting old and needs some anti arthritis medication. wheres my freaking subsidy for that hey abbott??
ugh. i cant even think about it. also this weekend, the bunnies lost to the roosters, and the wallabies lost to the springboks. portents perhaps?
i think im going to go eat chocolate cake.
k xx
