Sydney - Return Engagement

On Wednesday Merrilyn drove us to Cooma to catch the bus to Canberra where we changed buses and headed to Sydney. As we progressed on our journey the dry, brown landscapes slowly turned to green. They’ve been getting some welcome rain here. When we reached the hotel in Sydney we discovered that Merrilyn and David had paid for several breakfasts during our stay – a generous and thoughtful gift. We ate at a really nice Indian restaurant where we were served ridiculously large portions. I ate everything and felt pregnant.

Thursday we skipped breakfast (still pregnant) and hit the streets in an attempt to burn some calories and see some new scenery. Our previous days in Sydney back in December/January we spent doing primarily the usual touristy stuff. This day we instead walked through leafy neighborhoods full of Victorian architecture and grassy parks with great views of the harbor. We also checked out the somewhat sleazy Kings Cross area and the gay-centric Osborne Street. In one discount store Deborah found a water pistol shaped like a penis. She didn’t buy it. For our big meal of the day we returned to our favorite International Food Court on the Pitt Street Pedestrian Mall. This time I had a salad.

Jindabyne - Last Days

Merrilyn and David have left their beach house (reluctantly) and are back at the inn in time for our departure. They would have loved for us to stay longer but it is time for us to take the next step in our adventure. We’re heading back to Sydney to meet Myra and then head back up to Queensland.

On our last full day in Jindabyne Merrilyn’s sister Bev had us over for lunch. Later we gave Merrilyn and David as a gift a small painting I had done of Lake Jindabyne. That evening they treated us to a scrumptious dinner at a local Thai restaurant, followed by a drive into the mountains in search of kangaroos and the ever-elusive wombat. We scored on both counts. The wombat was a special treat given its failure to make an appearance on our previous scouting mission.

Jindabyne has been a good experience for us. Apart from a few cold days and a few ridiculously hot days the weather has been really nice. This is a quiet place without many sightseeing opportunities, but that has been a nice change of place for us. It has given me the opportunity to do a lot painting. And Deborah has enjoyed running the inn and learning the tricks of the trade. Plus we feel we’ve made good friends in Merrilyn and David and are sure we will see them again, either in the US or in Australia.

Deborah was surprised that I hadn’t put any photos of our Jindabyne flat in the blog yet so I’m rectifying that situation below.

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View from our balcony.

Our bedroom (one of three)

Another Huntsman spider parked on our bedroom curtain, prior to his demise at the end of a broom.

Timmy spent one last energetic day on our couch.

Jindabyne - Gay Rights

We will be heading back to Sydney in a few days but not in time to see the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras parade, which occurred this past weekend. Apparently it is quite the affair, attracting 300,000 revelers from around the world. More than 130 floats and 9,500 people participated in the procession, which began as a protest march for equal rights for gays in 1978. It has since grown into one of the world's largest and most flamboyant gay pride events. Spectators waited for up to six hours for prime viewing spots along the 2.4-km (1.5-mile) parade route. Lots of sequins, feathers, wigs and leather were on display. And of course the iconic Dykes on Bikes.

What’s remarkable is that this isn’t at all a fringe event. That is evident from the size of the crowd but also by the broad array of participants. According to the AP, “Lifeguards, cheerleaders, nurses and sports teams strutted and spun to their floats' music. Banks, schools and churches were represented, as were the Australian Federal Police, the Defense Department and state firefighters. All of the marchers, whether flamboyant in feathers and high heels or wearing their official work uniforms, were grinning ear-to-ear as they waved to the crowd.”

Gay rights have been gradually increasing in Australia since the 1970’s, particularly at the state/territory level. Progress at the federal level had been slower, particularly under John Howard’s administration, which constantly attempted to block recognition of same-sex couples. In November of 2007 John Howard’s coalition lost the election to Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party, which openly supported rights for same-sex couples. The new government followed through last year as lawmakers passed legislation giving homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexuals, though they have not legalized same-sex marriages. The progress in legislation coincides with changes in public opinion. A nationwide Galaxy poll in 2007 showed 71% of respondents agreed that same-sex partners should have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples, and 57% of respondents supported same-sex marriage.

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Jindabyne - Scavenging and Toilets

Most of our guests have checked out after the busy weekend. Deborah has been busy cleaning rooms all day. (No, I haven’t helped her; she says she needs something to do). She has discovered that there are definitely scavenging opportunities for innkeepers. Guests, either through forgetfulness or a desire to lighten their load, leave all manner of things behind. Today Deborah scored four bottles of shampoo and conditioner. In previous days we’ve inherited bottles of beer, an air freshener, cartons of milk, cheese, bread, and a frozen food box of the traditional but oddly named “bubble and squeak” (a fried patty of mashed potatoes and chopped vegetables). We’ve also ended up with a cell phone charger, although this is of less use to us and Deborah has tried unsuccessfully to reunite it with its owner.

Deborah finds it interesting how much you can learn about people from tidying their rooms. In the rooms where the engineer types stay you’ll see laptops and newspapers. In the rooms of the worker dudes you find beer cans and pizza boxes and the occasional home-made bong. Some guests are neat and tidy, some are total slobs. Some even bring their favorite stuffed animal to sleep with.

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Deborah says each room holds the smell of its occupant and the variety of human scents is truly amazing. Men definitely smell different than women, but within each gender there is a vast array of individual odors. One of the more distinctive in this regard is one of the workers who frequently stays here in one the basement rooms and regularly leaves skid marks in the toilet. Deborah has dubbed him “The Pooper.” He makes no attempt to clean his own toilet despite the fact that every room is equipped with a toilet brush.

Speaking of toilets, that is exactly what they call them here – both the fixture and the room. We Americans pussyfoot around the subject with terms like bathroom, lavatory, powder room, ladies room and restroom. But on more than one occasion when we’ve been at a museum or in a train station Deborah has asked someone where to find the restroom and they, thinking she in her strange American accent must have said “restaurant”, proceeded to give her directions to the nearest eatery. No, you have to ask where the “toilet” is. This takes some getting used to as it sounds a bit crass to our ears, even though it is thoroughly truthful and to the point. On rare occasions you might also hear the friendly traditional English term “the loo,” which I quite like. Or, if you’d like to revert back to Aussie slang you can call it the "dunny" or the "thunderbox."

Jindabyne - Indigenous People

It’s a familiar story. White Europeans sail across the seas in search of new lands and riches. Inevitably, these “new lands” are already occupied, but the indigenous tribes are divided and unable to match the Europeans’ weaponry. Those that fight back are killed; those that cooperate eventually have their land taken anyway or die of introduced diseases. The indigenous population shrinks, intermixes with the invaders via rape or intermarriage, and their culture is eroded by assimilation policies. Their descendants live at the margins of society, often in isolated communities that struggle with poverty, poor health, unemployment, crime and alcoholism. North America, South America, Australia, many other places...it’s all very familiar.

In the case of Australia the indigenous people are commonly referred to as Aborigines (or “Abo’s”, a derogatory term, although we’ve heard many Australians use it). But there is a second, distinct group known as Torres Strait Islanders, who inhabit the islands off the northern tip of Queensland. Together they number about 500,000 people, or 2.6% of the total population. Many of that number are only “part” rather than “full” indigenous.

There is debate among researchers as to when the ancestors of the indigenous people first arrived in Australia. It is at least 40,000 years ago, but maybe as high as 70,000. At any rate, this is a very, very old culture. At the time of the first British settlements there were several hundred distinct indigenous languages. Now all but 20 are either extinct or endangered. The indigenous languages have been shown to be unrelated to any outside of Australia.

Today the Aboriginal population is mostly urbanized, although about a quarter lives in remote settlements. In our travels, limited as they are to the southeast coast, we have seen very few. The Northern Territory, which we haven’t visited, has the largest indigenous population percentage-wise (32%), while each of the other states and territories has less than 4%. The government provides aid to Aboriginal communities and individuals to help fight their many social ills. I’m not sure how much is given but it is enough to make many of the non-indigenous Australians resent it. As I said, it’s a familiar story.

I’ll have more posts on the Aboriginal people in future posts.

Jindabyne - The Wind

It's nice and sunny here today but quite windy, as evidenced by this photo of Deborah doing her best impression of Cousin It.
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And speaking of (breaking) wind, here's another Aussie slang term:

Dutch Oven - farting under the bed cover blankets and pulling the covers over someone else's head

Jindabyne - Meat

Deborah has been low energy for last few days and has been craving red meat. It’s been a year and a third since we became pescatarians (vegetarians who eat seafood) and it may be catching up with her. Her lack of vigor has probably been compounded by her totally abstaining from wheat for the last 8 weeks, a grain to which she is allergic, and also eating minimal sugar. She’s losing weight but also losing energy. So like a junkie in need of an iron fix she hightailed it to the grocery store for some beef and broccoli. She swallowed her guilt along with the dead animal flesh and actually started to feel better after just a couple of hours. It’s still too early to tell if the result is real or psychosomatic. At any rate she doesn’t plan on an extended carnivorous binge, but the occasional steak may be in order to keep her functioning.

It’s somewhat ironic that she is the one to break with our pescatarian ways given that the primary reason we started this diet was to lower her cholesterol. I went along with it after learning more about the unhealthy consequences of the meat-rich western diet (we eat much more protein than our bodies can even process), not to mention the horrible conditions in the factory farms and slaughterhouses, and the environmental degradation that results from our industrial approach to livestock.

The Australian beef industry is huge and exports 60% of production, primarily to the USA and Japan. Exports aren’t hurt by the fact that Australia is free of mad cow disease. My understanding is that Australian beef is almost entirely grass-fed. This is in contrast to the USA where we take the cattle out of the pastures where they would naturally graze on grass and instead crowd them into feed lots where they are force-fed corn, a grain that makes them sick and could actually kill them unless done gradually and while they are continually pumped full of antibiotics. But the corn fattens them up faster, as do the protein supplements and growth hormones. And faster equals more profitable, even it means an inhumane, nutritionally inferior product and a heightened prevalence of E. coli bacteria. (Listen to me on my high horse...or high cow).

Australians love their meat as much as Americans, and will start drooling at the mention of pork chops or snags (sausages) on the barbie (barbeque). Still, we haven’t had any trouble at all finding seafood or vegetarian alternatives wherever we’ve gone. I’ve grown quite fond of salad sandwiches, which are ubiquitous.

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I’m actually not opposed to eating meat. I just want to ensure that the animal I’m eating is healthy, lived a natural life and was killed in a humane way. If my nephew traipsed through the woods and shot a deer, I would eat it. And, though I haven’t done so yet, I think I would eat kangaroo. Kangaroo meat is only produced from non-protected species of free ranging animals on property owned by individuals, not via organized farming. But for now I’m okay sticking with seafood (not farm raised), and at any rate want to continue eating much less meat than I used to. Now I’m off to find some nice road kill for Deborah.