davywavy: (Default)
davywavy ([personal profile] davywavy) wrote2009-03-26 12:08 pm

Nyet, cobber, nyet!

It's very easy to romanticise places that one hasn't been to. People do it all the time. "If I lived in country/town/place, then life would be so much better", they say, whilst wistfully staring into the sunset instead of working to improve their quality of life where they actually are.
I do this myself, and I suppose that the rosy-tinted spectacles of romance colour my view of Australia. I've always thought Oz sounds generally ace, and life there, judging from reports, seems to be a non-stop round of barbies, Fosters, surfing and rooting with Sheilas. Indeed, I've even speculated on what life over there must be like from time to time.

I think there's something about countries that have an awful lot of space which encourages people to a sort of rugged individualism. A bloody-minded tendency to do what they like and damn the neighbours, and so it is that I suspect that at some point or another a gang of Australians got together and had a conversation which went something like this:
Bruce: Strewth, mates, I've just had a bonzer idea! Once we've finished rooting with these 'ere Sheilas, caught a few curls and eaten those prawns, how about we build a Tesla Coil and play live-action Red Alert?
Bruce: Ripper idea, Bruce! Let's do that.

And that's just what they did. Ace.

[identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com 2009-03-26 12:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Fantastic!
Ah, it's that huge Oz website devoted to Tesla coils. There's one guy who strapped one to his car and is driving around in it...

The one I saw last year was nowhere near as impressive. It was slightly better in reality but the room wasn't completely dark so the photos didn't come out well.

[identity profile] twicedead.livejournal.com 2009-03-26 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
And Australians wonder why we have so many bushfires.

[identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com 2009-03-26 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought it was because you did so much to extinuish them when they start? The Eucalyptus is like an arboreal suicide bomber, enthusiastically bursting into flames at the slightest provocation in order to create a world where its kind can grow without interference?

[identity profile] patchworkkid.livejournal.com 2009-03-26 02:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I so proud.

[identity profile] patchworkkid.livejournal.com 2009-03-26 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Not touting myself or anything, but you might possibly get a kick out of these. (http://patchworkkid.livejournal.com/tag/cooktown).

[identity profile] breekom.livejournal.com 2009-03-26 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
there are many reasons we are the lucky country, big d, this is but one of them.