Survival Guide to the ACT part 2

Enjoying Politics
Politics are the same everywhere and Australia is no different. We have Labor and the Liberals duking it out and from my office I oversee most of the Canberra battlefield, comfortably sipping a soda and eating a cookie while they tear into each other. Living in the Capital, we get most of it on TV as well and it is hilarious, the things people are allowed to say about each other on TV. The leaders of the country "boo-ing" each other in parliament, TV commercials branding the other side as liars and frauds in language that would make even a Dutchman blush and think about law suits.
Very entertaining, but the posturing and hot air speeches get old pretty fast. It's annual budget time in Australia, because for some reason their financial year ends on the 30th of June. No idea why, but probably because it makes them different from the rest of the civilised world and allows for really long summer holidays around Christmas. Some politicians come across as genuine, but not the prime minister. Oh boy, you thought Balkenende was a bad deal?! (he wasn't). Meet Tony Abbott. He is by far the most slick man I have ever seen and without ever having met the man, I disliked him the first time I saw him. He is a unique combination of Slick Rick, Rick James, Berlusconi and Prince, but without the talent or charisma to make it entertaining, so that leaves him with just slick, sharky creepiness. Great man to rule the nation. See for yourselves.

See, creepy.

Loving Canberra
The City does not have a great reputation, is considered boring and not worthwhile. Somehow the mayor took that as a personal insult and has been on a mission to turn that around. I thinks it's working because Canberra was voted the most livable city in Australia for 2013, which is pretty cool if you compete with the likes of Sydney and Melbourne. There's all sorts of cultural festivals you can go to, free museums, parks, a really big fountain, lakes, 1,000 eateries (not all restaurants exactly), free parking in many places, mountains all around, Fyshwick, a big TV tower and lots and lots of big pick up trucks. Everything is close, we have a nice North vs South rivalry going on (without Patrick Swayze) and about 120 different cultures living in an area the size of Rotterdam Zuid. Really, what's there not to love?!

You feelin'it yet?

Dealing with the People
I like Australians, because Canberrans consider themselves to be the least friendly and easygoing and I think they are great already. They're like the Dutch, but with better manners in nearly every situation. They are courteous in stores, apologise for bumping into you, make way when they see you coming, help out random strangers and speak politely. However, two exceptions must be made. 1) Do not let them get in a car, because that brings out the worst in them. Impatience, recklessness, plain stupidity and arrogance seem to be the standard when it comes to driving. Could be that because their cars take up half the road anyway they feel more entitled, but as a Rotterdam Zuid Forever person I do not take that very well. People seem to be unaware that at some time they have to leave that car and loose the protection of all that steel and glass or that it has doors that can be opened. A forgotten blinker on a roundabout or not driving the speed limit or above will get you angry shouts, horns, fingers (not the pinky, ring, thumb or index) or aggressive tailgating. I still hope that someday someone would put their money where their mouth is, but so far, no luck. 2) They should be fined for what they do to their language. I consider myself fairly fluent in English. English! Okay maybe American. It's not that they speak like Crocodile Dundee, they don't. But the levels of torture and grinding they put the words through calls for an intervention by the language police! They apologise for it and happily strangle another word until you hear yourself thinking: "that person is speaking, but I have no idea what is being said"or you gasp in shock, thinking you've been just invited to sexually assault someones dog, only to find out that the other person was asking if you'd like a cookie to go with that soda. Come on guys, make an effort!

That would be me on the phone

Watching TV
Like politics, TV is the same everywhere, except in Buthan, where it's all still very new) and again, Australia is no exception. There are some differences to the Netherlands though. The endless talk shows about football are about Rugby and we have at least three 7 days a week morning news shows, most of them Sydney based and all rather heavy on the light entertainment and human interest. There is a lot of laughter, like "Evers Staat Op", which supposedly makes that tragedy of a family shoot out leaving 5 people dead a lot easier to digest...Fortunately there is however a kids cartoon channel that I really like, because the weekends start at 0600 with some cartoons we did not use to get in Europe. Good times. How about movies then? Well, how about 17 (no joke) commercial breaks during one movie? Yeah, I'll buy the DVD of download, thank you. Commercials are worth a study in and of themselves, so I'll save that for another blog. You could of course buy a decoder or NASA sized satelite dish, but aside from HBO, you'd just get more of the same, so there's really no point. Better go out and have some outdoor fun or buy a PlayStation. Then there's different series of Mythbusters running on three channels and the same goes for the Big Bang Theory, but that runs on 5 of the 15 channels because there's more series available. We've also got "When love comes to town" (Boer zoekt vrouw), the Voice, the biggest loser and some of the series like Elementary, the Blacklist and such. Most of that we've already seen online, so there really is not that much on TV.
There is however the evening news on 7, with Mark Ferguson. Whoever casted that guy for the role should get a really big bonus, because he is everything Tony Abbott is not. If Mark Ferguson told me that we had to make sacrifices for the well being of Australia, I'd believe it. Hell, I'd consider donating an organ if he told me that he needed it to save a life. The man is reliability personified, take some notes Tony, he's on TV nearly every night.

I'd vote for him