So far this week
Of course, being the middle of freezing June and living in Australia, it was easier to explain to my peers and co-workers that I was taking a tropical holiday to one of the northern parts of the big brown land. Somewhere that I could escape the cold and drizzle for a few days of sunshine. Something warmer than this shit:
So, after spending most of Monday in airports I woke up Tuesday at 0730 to brave fog and dew to get to the final parade for the Graduates of June 2008. It started like this.
Before out march a couple hundred cadets for their final inspection and a few wheels around the parade ground. After they'd all arrived and assembled in five companies I tried to spot Steve amongst their masses. Oh, there he is, he's easy to spot because he was so into this army thing that he finished practically top of the class, was put in charge of running the cadets during the parade and won himself a free sword.
Yep, there he is with a sword yelling things loudly and seriously and then waiting for the assembled masses to do what he said. I've had similar experiences with the power of my IT degree, except all the people I ordered about live in the Asian subcontinent.
The parade was pretty impressive. The final thing Steve yelled managed to be the loudest and it echoed around the hills of Duntroon as Steve led them off the parade grounds for the last time, the sun broke through the clouds and a lone magpie flapped across the sky. Then we broke for family photos and lunch.
Canberra is an interesting place. They have this ungodly obsession with roundabouts there, not just on the main roads but in the middle of all the freeways which is kind of offputting. Also instead of having, say, roundabout warning signs when you're approaching one at 80km an hour they just pattern the road with a bunch of meaningless lines. So the first time you're hurtling along in your hire car at night and you go "hmmm, what's with all the lines HOLY SHIT A ROUNDABOUT".
They also have a supermarket chain called Aldis which is all around the place in Australia, but not in Adelaide. So for the benefit of the ignorant I'll explain that Aldis is the supermarket where TV shows buy props for their kitchen scenes.
We bought a carton of "Balanced Right" for breakfasts and at the counter I was tossing up buying a Cherry Ripe wannabe bar (Cherry Chocolate Bar) or the Turkish Delight bar (Turkish Delight Bar).
Also, at the place I was staying the first thing I noticed on the side table was these random orb decorations. Canberra... so cold...
And of course I scoffed and chuckled to myself "Oh, women, why do we bother with such meaningless, nonfunctional items for decoration... Wait a minute, this reminds me of something. Bradism.com page layout circa 2005...
Yeah, so Canberra is a weird place. I wouldn't recommend going there at all if you can avoid it. Especially if you're from Adelaide. Although I went through Adelaide on the way home from the airport and for the first time had an appreciation of how big Adelaide kinda is.
Comments