Queen's Birthday holiday? - only in the former colonies

Tomorrow is the Queen's Birthday holiday. I remember being in England on this day in 1990 and being blown away when I discovered that in the UK they don't have a special public holiday for it. I really respect Queen Elizabeth and the concept of her being the Queen of England etc etc, but as to her being Queen of Australia? Nah! We are overdue becoming a republic, long overdue. Still, I doubt much will happen while She is still on the throne, but there is no way the monarchy will survive in the Antipodes beyond that. "Long live the Queen" - but not here.

We celebrated Queensland Day last Friday. It is the day, June 6, in 1859 when Queen Victoria signed the 'Letters Patent' bringing into being the colony of Queensland, separated from the colony of New South Wales. Next year is our sesquicentennial, our 150th anniversary, so the State Government is planning a huge range of events to commemorate this special date. Like the world over, we are experiencing strain from the economic downturn plaguing developed economies yet we in Queensland (and Australia in general) are feeling less impact due to the thriving resource sector, and we have loads and loads of resources for export to the booming economies of China and India. The 'gloom and doom' merchants are currently having a field day, yet we can still use the opening lines of the Queensland Song composed for the centenary in 1959 - "Life is great in the Sunshine State..." (that's our state flag)

We seem to have become masters of the art of the extended lunch. Yesterday we dined downstairs at our neighbours apartment with a starting time of noon and I think we finished just after 6:30pm. Four of the guests came from Tasmania, one was born in Holland. Of course I yet again proved that I can be all talked out (yes, it can happen) and of course copious quantities of beer followed by wine and terrific conversation just exhausts me. Throw into that equation delicious Indian cuisine and no wonder I melted into bed last night. Rene and our neighbour combined to cook delicious dishes, and all in all a great time was had by all.

By the way, the morning began yesterday with strange noises outside the bedroom window - turned out to be two guys working on adding sealant around the blind brackets to stop water leaking in (around 10 apartments had water damage last weekend - we didn't). Strange to be eye to eye with two blokes on the second floor. This was at 10am - fortunately they weren't outside the window an hour earlier.

Rene has sold some more paintings this week, this time to a bloke from New Zealand who was visiting Brisbane. After buying a few, he turned around a couple of days later and bought another one over the phone. The visitor drove up with his daughter to the gallery from Brisbane and saw the Sunshine Coast looking exquisite after its drenching the previous weekend. This weekend it's again cool and occasionally showery, but for four days last week it was sublime, even reaching 25C. Not bad for winter.

Mind you, me, myself, I was working and of course commuting. Would you believe that EVERY morning last week the Bruce Highway into Brisbane was blocked by accidents; every morning mind you, so I rang in saying I'd be leaving a bit later to give them time to open the road and clear the backlog, and even then I still drove at a snail's pace through kilometres of clogged roads. I can't wait for the holidays, after that we'll be yet again living back in Brisbane.

The house is looking very good, and I'm almost certain that we'll be in on July 10. Yesterday the builder said that the deck was being finished off with railings and marine wire cabling, and the tilers are supposed to have finished on Friday (haven't been there since Wednesday) and the interior painters are due this Tuesday or Wednesday. Now all we have to do is get the driveway and pathways etc done. That's our job. I still have to get one quote, this Tuesday. I only have one seriously awful picture taken with my phone of the detail in the en suite. Of course the grouting isn't done, but you get the drift. I can't wait to see it all finished and shiny.

The Australian football team, the Socceroos, were defeated last night by Iraq in Dubai. They lost 1-0. They defeated Iraq here in Brisbane a week ago. They are still equal top in their round. They have two qualifying matches left, the first against Qatar and then China. This match will be held in Sydney. The Socceroos Dutch coach, Pim Verbeek, is still confident Australia will qualify into the next round.

No doubt like you, I've been watching the Obama / Clinton stoush for months. At first I was pro Clinton since she was the known quantity, and I certainly had never heard of her opponent. If it came down to a black president or a woman president, I was initially in favour of the latter, since 52% were wayyy overdue for acknowledgement. Now, you could argue similarly for the black representation (not the same %age), yet to me at the time a known woman was better than an unknown man, regardless of colour. I was still erring on her side until things got a bit nasty (who needs enemies when you have Democrat 'friends' like her?). The machines behind both camps are amazing, beyond my comprehension. Just think what they can do from now on working together (thinks...with such vitriol flying around these past weeks, how can they unite to defeat the unthinkable - a Republican victory?).

A major turning point in my perceptions of what's been happening between these two camps came via my trusted and oh so wise friend Kit. He's an American living here in Brisbane (currently back in the States for a vacation). He rationally explained to me why Obama was the way to go, a Kennedyesque persona with policies to match, directed me to a couple of websites, and ultimately convinced me by (for the first time in his life) putting his hand in his own pocket and sending off cheques to Obama's campaign committee. Now, I'm off shore, in a country that doesn't vote for the American Presidency, yet the very choice of a president influences our everyday life here in the Land Down Under via our defence commitments, the price of oil, foreign policy, world stability etc etc. Should the Republicans and McCain win in November we will all be well and truly fucked. Yes, I used that word. If I hear and see another white Middle Class Democrat woman on TV scream "we wuzz robbed because She is a woman" I'll scream myself. And should she latter also utter the phrase - "and I won't vote for Obama either" - that Democrat female should just find a good cliff and follow the other lemmings over the edge. Also if the "race card" influences a Democrat to not support their fairly elected nominee, they too should just surrender and let the current Administration proceed to continue doing their bit to well and truly contribute to the wholesale mess that Bush has left us with...and I used the word 'us' deliberately.

The women have a fair case though in saying Clinton was reported in a biased way, using 'sexist' language and references that a male wouldn't have to tolerate. This aside, they jointly have tremendous burdens to carry, those being both race and gender. The Right's view of the world scares the crap out of me, it really does. Nowhere in the world does the Right have such outrageous influence, and the money to back it. Scary stuff indeed!

Incidentally, whilst walking along an esplanade at the beautiful Bay of Islands in New Zealand at the end of 2002 I argued with a dear American friend about how decisions being made would lead to war and the mess we are currently in over in Iraq (I had no idea then just what a huge mess it would be). It was heated to say the least, but he had some difficulty seeing just why what the US did should concern anybody over here on this side of the world. Well, we are committed to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with several other countries now, and I'm teaching English to refugees from those very countries. I want thinking, rational Americans to join as one; get behind Obama and defeat the past, embrace the future. God Bless America.