Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

The place is going to the dogs

So it's Thursday - the day of the teachers' strike has arrived. Already at 7.30am there are signs of fractiousness with our kids and the Milly pup seems to be yapping more than usual. She's looking forward to some hi-jinks.

As for the teachers, their yapping is to get under later today when they attend a mass meeting to be told what to do next by their union. I wouldn't be surprised if they stay out until after tomorrow, because there is nothing teachers enjoy more than a longer, long weekend. Next Monday is a public holiday - Labour Day. Celebrated in honour of the struggle for the 40 hour week, or eight hour days, whichever comes first.

According to Wikipedia, "On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day." This inspired workers all over the world to also join the struggle for a slacker life. Because of daylight saving and the fact that Labour history is not generally taught to WA students, Western Australia has its Labour Day in early March. Duh.

I've just learned from my wife that we have been shanghaied as baby sitters today. The divorced mother of a friend of one of our kids is a teacher and is going to the strike meeting to wave placards. How about that?

Earlier this week we received form-letters from the headmasters of the primary and high schools where our kids are enrolled. They said that parents could send kids to school because they would still be supervised. But yesterday the word went out via the media that all kids should be kept at home from schools because there weren't enough supervisors. Well, we weren't going to send them to school anyway. They would have been exposed to too many Hollywood DVDs.

We watched the Academy Awards a couple of nights ago. A billion people around the globe saw it live, but here in Dullesville the telecast was delayed half a day to maximise evening advertising revenue.

Now for something really annoying. Last week I put up a photo on my Panorimo site of an old house being moved to make way for a new 'public park' - the latest brainstorm of the Melville City Council. This morning I've put up a picture of the same area. There's quite a difference. All the mature trees have gone, including an outstanding species for Australian parks, a Norfolk Island pine. Have a look at this latest act of civic creativity by clicking here.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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