Trivial pursuits, and the end of the (BBC) World
Stephen Kent-Taylor here. Anne's written about our admirable jogging-trip already, so I'll fill you in on the more important aspects of living in Oz.
We are trivia kings. Oh yes, that's right - Anne and I won our local pub quiz last night. 40 dollars (about 15 quid) in vouchers for the pub or adjoining "Bottle Shop" (off-license). We only won by 1 and a half points, so it's just as well I knew the names of the two heckling old men in The Muppet Show (Statler & Waldorf) and what the car in Knight Rider's initials stood for (Knight Industries Two Thousand).
So given that, we're now feeling very settled. No jobs yet, but what do you want - a miracle? The flat is nice, and is not as small as Anne makes out, and certainly not as small as some we saw. It has a kitchen section, a lounge section and a bedroom section, with no walls in between them, and a separate loo/shower room. This has lead to endlessly hilarious jokes such as "I'm in the bedroom and therefore can't hear you if you talk to me from the lounge. If you want to talk to me come to the bedroom." Ahahahhahahah. Sigh. I suppose you need to be there really.
I've always delighted in telling people how low-maintenance Anne is as a girlfriend. This was brought to my attention yesterday when she got quite excited when I allowed her to buy a variety pack of cereal all for herself. I think she associates these tiny cereal boxes with going on holiday, and I can now look forward to mornings of Anne joyfully deciding which cereal to have.
Speaking of getting over-excited about food: I tried Tim-Tams yesterday. These are Aussie chocolate biscuits, a bit like Penguins but different (more sugar, probably). I had been advised to try them, I think by Sarah in Tokyo. I am happy to report that they are glorious, and I shall be gorging myself on these delightful packets of joy at every opportunity.
Perhaps more exciting is the variety of Magnum ice-creams here in Oz. In the UK we get a fairly limited range of Walls Magnums (Magna), but here they have enjoyably different ones. They mistakenly call the company Walls "Streets" so they're Streets Magna here, but they have different flavours of this luxury snack here and it makes me very excited. Currently there's a limited edition range called "The Sixties Nine" (nice name). These are nine new flavours of Magna, whose names are puns on sixties icons and phrases. So far I have shoveled a "John Lemon" and a "Wood Choc" down my neck, and look forward to devouring the other seven. They say limited edition, so I'd best hurry! Go here to see them all on Streets' web site.
On a sadder note (can it get much sadder?) we don't have cable TV in our flat. There is a telly, but it only gets the Aussie networks. This means that, for the first time since we left the UK, we don't have BBC World. Yes - look concerned. No more hourly news reports from people with proper accents, no more world weather. I guess we'll survive, but I've yet to see how. I can report on a few bits of Aussie news: Harold Bishop and Lou seem to be trying to help Harold's girlfriend with her gambling addiction, and Donald "flat-head" Fisher is leaving the Bay for good, leaving Big Sally (whose sister is pregnant with Sally's twins) as acting Principal. So we're not totally out of touch.
I'm enjoying reading The Sydney Morning Herald here. It's a pretty good paper, with good crosswords (cryptic and quick) - thank goodness I brought my mini dictionary away with me. There are state elections here next month, so it will be interesting to see all the politicians bitching at each other in their very Aussie way.