We couldn't afford the other 49 candles

left-to-right: Padma, Merty and Flora; the chubby one is little 'Sarah bobo'.
Giggling behind the camera was May

 

Here's a very short and very belated clip of Padma's get-together with her Indonesian friends at the Starfish Deli in town to celebrate her birthday.

 

Chicken or the egg?

 

Which came first: comedy or reality? They seem so much the same that I wonder whether I should laugh or cry. Housos vs. Authority is a crossing-the-line 'comedy' that has the stench of truth wafting through it.

If you and your brain have temporarily parted company, you may just enjoy this perverse celebration of a certain type of Australianness with its stream of expletives uttered by people who speak and move as if their underwear is full of gravel.

Watching the trailer was bad enough and so I never sat through the whole thing to count the number of times those dole-bludging misfits used the F-word. And I failed to see the point of the movie. Or perhaps it was meant to be pointless - as pointless as the bludgy lifestyles of the foul-mouthed, dim-witted characters in it.

All I've learned from it is that Centrelink is not an urban transport system but the place where a large number of Australians collect their "paycheques". Stupid me! No wonder my neighbours, who every time they see me stick up their middle-finger - presumably to check which way the wind is blowing - , call me un-Australian!

 

Back to Boganville

No password? Try here to watch Episode 2
and here to watch final Episode 3.
To watch Episode 1, click here

 

Of course, we watched the second and final instalment of Struggle Street on SBS and were torn between anger and pity: anger at the 'grown-ups' who blame everybody else but themselves and feel that society owes them a living, and pity for their children who didn't ask to be born into such filthy and self-inflicted squalor - click here.

I really don't want to say any more than that. Now that our politically-oh-so-correct world offers an excuse for every failure and a medical term for every misbehaviour, any suggestion based on common sense would be shouted down immediately.

 

Travelling Light

 

For ten years Robyn Davidson, the bestselling author of Tracks, has been travelling light. This slim 136-page volume of articles takes you into the wilds of many countries - as well as countries of the mind.

It may not be quite enough reading for a weekend which looks like it's going to be cool and overcast, so I have also chosen Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life as a standby.

And if that isn't enough yet, I might watch "Tracks - The Movie" again:

 

Which one will be next?

The sale of LANE END has ended

 

There's still life left in the real estate market: # 8 Sproxton Lane sold in November; # 57 Kings Highway (just above Sproxton Lane) sold in December; # 18 Sproxton Lane sold in April; and just today the SOLD sign went up on "Lane End", # 33 Sproxton Lane, directly across from us!

 

Which leaves # 27 Sproxton Lane and "Riverbend"! Which one will be next?