Excessive

Okay, here's a confession - I have an Aussie flag adorning my PC work station. Call me a racist gangster if you like but I found it, I liked it, so I placed it there. No big deal. However I was taken aback walking into Woolies last night when confronted by flag overdose. Yes I know it's nearly Australia Day but gees, it was a needlessly excessive.

Speaking of excessive I came across these two characters during the week in Kings Cross, one with his arm thrust down a drain hole. A good twenty minutes later I passed by again to find the bloke still at it, using a wire fishing tool. Hope it was worth it.

It reminded me of an incident when I was younger and sillier. Standing at a bar in my local pub one night chatting with a friend, I became aware of a girl on her hands and knees crawling between our legs. She was rummaging through the cigarette foot trough. 'What the hell are you doing ?', I asked. 'I've lost a pink elephant', she moaned. This was in the days when LSD was all the rage.

Comments

[Greg]

I've got one of those at my work atation, too, plus a Socceroos flag from the Sun Herald. And one of those redesigned Aussie flags. No U.S. stuff, but my accent does that for me. What the hell? I'm proud to be an Australian citizen. But the Big Day Out organisers are within their rights to try to keep control of the event, especially after last year's gang-colour actions regarding the flag. It's not that different from the pubs, etc., banning hats so as to reduce their chance of being robbed. They should ban all flags, however, not just the one.

[Sean]

Yes Woolies and Coles have gone on flag overdose. I haven't looked yet to see whether the aforementioned merchandise is actualy made in Australia.

I have a full sized flag at home that I use as a table cloth sometimes, I also eat one of the national emblems regularly.

Naughty me, very un-Australian

[Wokka]

Adrian,

With respect to the photo hanging to the left of your computer's flag; is that guy holding a (drooping) snag for Friday's barbie?

[kalesco]

hi adrian,
I must admit I'm a longtime lurker. ;)
But today I just have to comment - I too have an Australian Flag, but it's huge and hanging on a wall in my apartment. Funny thing (or sad thing, depends really) is, I'm not Australian.
I'm Austrian (so, well, almost *g*) but I spent a couple of months in Sydney as an intern. Which is why I love to read your blog. Distant memories and all that - I fell in love with the city.
Thank you for reporting about the city and various suburbs, I will definitely keep up the lurking. :)
ps: the preview is kind of weird.

[adrian]

Greg, especially after last year's gang-colour actions regarding the flag. A passenger last night related witnessing at 2006 BDO ethnics being made to kiss the flag. If this is true the BDO organisers would have grounds for concern.
Sean, emu, roo or Dame Edna ?
Wokka, for me it's a perfectly proportioned woman but hey, whatever. A snag ? That's a good one.
Hi Kalesco and thanks for the active lurking. Yes, Preview is kind of weird and hard to read, might have the host look into it.

[Yobbo]

So what if they instead forced people to fellate them or face a bashing? Should we ban penises from the big day out?

If people are beating other people up at the big day out, you need more security, you don't need to ban flags.

[ab]

I have to admit to thinking the same thing when I saw the photo of the snaggered one, in fact I have several photos as my wallpaper to that effect.

The whole 'uber-nationalism' thing is a cheap stunt used by pollies to sell their unsavoury policies. It's a bit of a cheek to have the union jack on the flag, it would be far more appropriate to have the Aborginal emblem with the southern cross.

I'm with Sean, slap another roo steak on the barbie.