Australian News

Listening to ABC news on the radio is a bit different: one news station for the whole country (not unlike NPR), but because the population is so spotty, it can also do a lot of local news too. There's really only 5 major cities (Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney). So in about a minute, you can cover traffic for the whole nation. Since there's only 6 states and one territory, you can add 2 more small cities (Darwin and Hobart), and include all the state capitol weather reports in another minute. Neat.

The Aussie news seems to be about 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3: Oz, US, and the World. With US news being financial, political and a few horror stories thrown in to make you glad that you live in Oz and not that horrible place the other side of the Pacific. Easy to keep up on what's happening at home.

Back to the place where I stayed last night and enjoyed the pumpkin strudel. Talked to the woman of the couple that owns the place and she explained that in Australia, pumpkin is usually thought of as part of the main meal - rather than considering it a "sweet" or dessert (as in pie) as in the US.

There were 3 guests at the hotel last night. Me, and two women (not traveling together). One was quite silent and spoke only 3-4 words that I heard - I think in American. The other was quite a chatty Aussie and went on quite a political discussion with the proprietors at breakfast this morning. After apologizing for going on about politics (Oh my, It's too early for politics), you then plunged back in on "That despicable Tony Abbott - you do think he's despicable, don't you?". I actually learned a bit by listening in.

The proprietor also introduced me to "Shazam" an app on his Android that he used to "listen" to something that was playing on the radio, that then somehow in about 15 seconds was able to "think" with its mother website and identify the song and the artist. How cool is that? Wonder if it works with Classical? If you can do that, they've gotta be able to do it with "dog". This bark means "I'm hungry", that means "It's mine," and the ever-popular"Squirrel!!!!!".