There was a time, not long back when aircrew used to walk down the aisles of inbound planes to Australia spraying some sort of fumigant with the goal of keeping Australia pure. I can’t be arsed googling the subject, but can you imagine disinfecting a bunch of tourists without warning them, nor without getting their acquiescence? The mind boggles at the arrogance, not to mention the stupidity of thinking that this might achieve anything. I bet CSIRO was behind it…

What does it say about Australia when we have beautiful airport buildings, but they have really dodgy (small and dirty) public dunnies? I don’t understand.

As an intro to my PhD thesis I added a ‘vanity’ quote, as was the habit of the day;

“Allow me to furnish the interior of my head as I please, and I shall put up with a hat like everybody else’s.” –  Henri Bergson

Twenty five years on I have reduced this to “I will furnish the interior of my head as I please”.

Here in Australia, sports people are famous for talking about themselves in the second and third person.

In fact, one famous sports person (let’s call him, say, Fred Dagg) referred to himself in the fourth- or fifth-person (train spotters…help) in saying “I know a bloke who knows a bloke who thinks Fred Dagg should…”

Similarly, philosophers live life somewhat in the second and third person, analytically pigeon-holing their own lives and those of others into constructs of logic and reason. Real life, the first person version, is visceral, emotional and immediate; I prefer to live life  in the first person.

The key, I think, is to free yourself from the opinion of others.

That will take the first 40 years or so…if you work at it very hard.

I am not aligned to any “party” (what a misnomer eh?). They differ only  in whose interests they need to serve in order to serve their own interests. A pox on them all. I have tuned out.

My favourite wind; a wind blowing from the land (literally ‘off the shore’) on the East Coast of Australia (in this case) which smooths the faces of the waves and makes them more likely to barrel.

Such a contrast to everyday life…

{postscript @13 years later] It is all true up to a point. When that Westerly gets too strong the waves don’t break and its very frustrating. And since I have stopped surfing that Westerly is now just a pain in the arse on my ride home on my pushie.

Time changes perspective.