Half the world away by SimonWho

SIMONWHO'S BLOG

SimonWho

Half the world away
Friday, October 21, 2005

Even if you're flying faster than it can turn, the world does not stop turning. I'm currently in a dingy internet cafe in Sydney and even though I'm no longer there, all the other bits of my life keep turning. The curious thing is that thanks to said dingy internet cafes, I can keep track of it, watch the international gross mount up and generally keep my finger on the pulse.

I should point out that there is finally some sunshine here so I'm going off to enjoy that and then I have a whole week in the middle of nowhere effectively so I won't be able to keep tabs on anything. That'll be interesting too.

Mmm. There really ought to be some meat to this blog. Okay, I'll ramble about Sydney for a bit. How best to explain it? I can give you an example from last night. I'm walking with a group of five or so people, including my brother, and we come to a road crossing. Even though the pedestrian light is red, my brother crosses anyway. A taxi turns from the junction and Rob is now directly in his path. What happens next:

1) My brother becomes road kill.
2) The taxi driver revs, honks and screams at my brother who has to jump out of the way.
3) The taxi driver stops, waves at my brother and gestures at the rest of us to cross over too.

Pretty much any other city in the world, it would be 1) or 2) but in Sydney, on we were waved. Most peculiar.

It's not all courtesy and bon homie, though. I keenly feel the lack of hunger for reading material (bookshops are moderately sparse and there are a fraction of the number of magazines that most other countries have). There's also a slight mean spiritedness to some things here, a casual racism against the English (for example, the British backpacker whose boyfriend was allegedly murdered by someone on trial at the moment has been continuously castigated in the press, even to the point of constant hints that she may have been complicit) and a sense that priorities may not be quite right (most newspapers consist of 50% sports, 30% ads, 10% commentary and the remaining 10% is only occasionally actual news.) I couldn't live here but it is nice to visit.

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Friday, October 21, 2005 9:52 PM