bits and pieces

Well as all you regular reader will attest, I haven't been here lately. No particular thing to put it down to - apart from the bet with DH to desist from any Howard-hating activities - just been doin' other stuff. This has partly consisted of trying to replace the headlights in offspring no 2's replacement car. This has gone partly well: one went in OK, the other has been a real nuisance as I keep breaking bits of it. I haven't done this sort of work for about 25 years and when I last did it, headlights were a standard circular 7 inch affair and they all went together the same way. Now headlights are all odd shapes and are very complex inside and when you break a bit, it's bad news. Out with the glue when I've finished here.

If I was to walk the thin line in relation to Howard-hating, I'd have to talk a bit about current issues as Parliament resumes. The renascent discovery of backbone in some of the so-called 'broad church' is very welcome. The interesting thing will be to see how Fielding (Family First) swings. No doubt he will have been offered all manner of inducements that we either will never find out about, or so late it won't matter. I thought Labor's immigration spokesman, Tony Burke, came across on TV as well briefed and very adept at the sound bite. What a shame that Beazley will forever sound like a year 12 debating student confecting a rage.

A thinner version of the same line would probably make some comments about chicken noises in Parliament yesterday. Bring it on, and more often. Costello's rooted and everyone knows it.

A little while ago I mentioned that I had started on Hugh Mackay's book Australia at the Turning Point. I'm still wading through it and I still wince a bit at its earnestness and obvious bias (even if I agree with him). I retrieved my copy of Generations today so I'll be keen to go back through it to look at the differences. I guess - and it is a guess - that after a further three years of the current government, Mackay had had enough and decided to go for the polemic, whereas I think my interest is more in the descriptions of the preferences, foibles and beliefs of each of the generations as a reflection of the Australia we have become. Swapping family stories with a mate today, I was again blown away by the stories we all carry of the peculiarities found within families, how they get ignored, covered up, explained away or sometimes just never explained. No wonder so many of us end up a bit bent (more on bent in a minute). I occasionally will suddenly recall some incident from childhood and think, "now what did that signify? Why did that come back to me just now?"

So, not much grist for the mill today I'm afraid. I have left a few comments elsewhere around the 'sphere but the muse is not with me. What an empty life with no whingeing to be had.

Bent: that was the personalised plate I saw today on one of these. I guess that's how the rich do whimsy. I certainly liked it.