15th Annual Croatian Food Festival

   Dobre dan, my friends. Let me take you to the 15th Annual Croatian Food Festival held at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle.  We went to it last year and eagerly awaited last night's opening. Hope you're hungry...

   The fun starts as soon as you approach the Atrium.  Oh look,  costumed cgagnin smiling with welcoming trays of figs, bread and glasses of slivice (slivovic)- a seriously strong brandy.  Our table is right next to the VIP table where the mayor, Croatian Consul-General and other dignitaries are seated on opening night. The decorations of posters, costumes, flags and banners add to the festive atmosphere. 

   Stop gawking already. It's time to eat.  The spread is fantastic: three bars of salad, seafood and greens. An extended table of hot entrees and soup with a carving station off to the side. And a dessert table....but let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is a three hour supper, slow and steady does it.   Start with the salad bar where each premade salad, like everything else, has an ethnic appropriate name in English above its name in Croatian.

Every recipe seems to start with "Croatian", "Dalmatian", "Slovanja" or the name of a city like Hvar. Hey, it makes the coleslaw extra special. After a few trips to the salad bar, hit the seafood bar. Some people don't get much farther than this.  Last year, we watched the  twig-thin, 20 year-old  daughter of the Croatian Consul-General eat three plates of crab.  Kev only had two. Those king prawns are a hit also.  The salted fish takes some getting used to.

  My family is going to ask, "But do they have pigs-in-a-blanket?" This is what our Grandma called cabbage rolls. Yes, but these are made with cinnamon or nutmeg. UGH! New offerings this year included: Dalmatian Tripe, Isterian Roast Duck...or was the Rabbit from Isteria?, Penne Veal, some dolled up Chicken, Sauerkraut & Bacon plus the usual Roast Beef. Zucchini thrown in for yuks.  Yes, brothers mine, I did eat some of the tripe in memory of your sacrifice so many years ago. 

     All this food doesn't just magically appear. Celebrity chef Dennis Valcich is brought in from Sydney every year to oversee this feast. There was a video crew out last night shooting footage for an in-house project or future advertisement. This shot was the only time Chef got his hands dirty publicly in the name of food. He was there to take the accolades and, with great concession, insist he can't compete with anyone's grandmother.  Bless him.

   I must mention that the first thing one walks up to on the dessert table is a bowl of fresh fruit-- largely ignored. Three tables of cakes, cookies and other confections just winked a whole lot harder.  I chose only that which I cannot get easily at home...which means only the orange Jell-o was a miss. 

   Some singing, some dancing, some music, a few speeches (that Vice-Consul was so uncomfortable making a speech--mostly in Croatian-- and when you add his colorless waxy skin, thin lips, bad haircut and worse suit, he looked like a Russian spy in a 1940's movie) and a little more music.  Add a little more food and you have a full evening.

Literally.

We staggered out making the usual oaths ["I'm never eating again. Ever. "] and wondering if Gluttony has been reduced to a misdemeanor.  More wheezing and grunts when we finally managed to get to the car. Dawg, it takes a lot of energy to turn the key in the ignition.  The ride home is spent reliving the experience and seeing if we 'got our money's worth.'  It's not a cheap night. But we wouldn't miss it.

Schivilli!

Today's Headlines

  Let's take a look at today's headlines...the ones that appear online, brief little bits spotted on your way to something/anything else. Hard to tell if it is truly reflective of the most urgent issues of the day or important happenings on the community blotter. But here goes:
  

Sprinkler ban starts today

Winter begins June 1 in OZ (all seasons begin at the first of the month) and this means the rainy season has begun. So the Water Corporation has deemed it the perfect time to put on sprinkler and water use bans.  The WC instituted the ban-along with its $100 fines- last year with great success.  People cut their unnecessary watering by a great percentage.  And I ask, "Why wouldn't they?"   Winter here is nothing but clouds and rain.  The demand for water by plants, pools or humans drops with the temperatures. Or so I would have thought. Does anyone in North America run their sprinklers in the middle of a rain storm?  Although there are exhortations to conserve water during the much longer hot season, there is no ban on watering despite all the hand wringing about the dropping water levels in reservoirs.  All of this is the complete opposite of home where, if there is a ban or restriction on lawn sprinkling and hose use, it is during the hot, dry months of summer when the reservoirs are at their lowest levels. The ban does not apply farm fields, sporting greens and the like.

Sale of playing cards banned in Kununurra

This was a bit of a surprise. Apparently youths in this country town way up north have quite the racket making money on card games in the public park.  Young kids, 10-14 years old, and the stakes are rather high as $50 and $100 bills have been seized. Of course, these young dealers and losers aren't spending anytime in school while busy wasting money on games of chance.  So the community elders arranged to have playing card sales banned but cards are now being bought on the black market and found back in the parks.The problem is being re-evaluated.  Community elders are taking more proactive steps to curb the proliferation of listless youths and troubles up north.  More than a few communities have legislated themselves as completely dry-no booze sold or brought in- to curtail the waste and damage alcohol inspires in too many people in these outback stations, particularly in the indigenous community.

Schoolteachers back truancy tracking

Well, this was actually non-news. At long last Education Administrators have started to figure out that kids just aren't going to learn on their steam by their own devices. English grammar will be mandated again starting this school year and in a bigger push for literacy, keeping kids in class to start with.  This article mostly was geared toward the Aboriginal communities and their very fluid population. Historically wanderers, the tendency to move often and kids bounce between relatives still seems rather strong. A state tracking system of students will help each school know where their students are located and offer a stronger continuity of education materials for the students who land on their doorstep.The kids can't learn if they are not in school.

Greens slam asylum seeker mining camp plan

Well, slowing the pace of asylum seeker application handling hasn't  slowed the people-trafficking pace into the country. These people all can't be held at Christmas Island, so where can they be sent? How about a deserted mining camp near an isolated back country town? The left thinks its a horrible way to treat people. The right doesn't want illegals on the mainland. The country town sees jobs and money in the deal. And the State of WA is starting to make noise about how a Federal problem is being dumped largely on the state coffers to take care of.  The drama continues.

Sale of the Decade

The end of the financial year is nigh! The financial year here being July 1-June 30.  So predictably there are the End-of-Year-Stocktake (inventory) sales. Reporters are out there showing the crush of crowds thrilled to get a bargain at the two department store chains in the country: Myers and David Jones.  Just Look! 30, no wait, 40 - WOW, 50% off on goods like towels and last season's clothing!  Cha-ching, spending madness is in full swing!

   Yawn. People are going mad over 40% off?  We've run out of news today.

 

The Fat American

   My blood boiled.    It's taken several days for it to lower to 'simmer' so I could even write this.  And I'm not sure if my temporary extreme annoyance is fed by truth or by the gall of one who lives in a glass house.   It certainly speaks to the general image Americans are known for around the world.  Not the white, straightened teeth or the self-confident comportment but the increasing size of the average American's girth.  It seems all of the U.S. can be found in the potato chip aisle of WalMart.  Or it is assumed so. And that is what rubs me the wrong way.  
   What started this distemper?  Watching a repeat of the BBC's "Top Gear", a show hosted by the Prat Pack (as they are referred to in the popular press here)- three guys who like to talk about and drive cars. Gearheads don't miss an installment as automobile manufacturers from the exclusive performance cars on down to family wagons donate their vehicles  to be driven and critiqued by these self-important prats.  Jeremy Clarkson, the eldest and leader of the trio, was asking  audience members where they were from.  He got to one fresh-faced blonde chick who said she was from the U.S. "What?", bellowed the bombastic Brit, " You're not fat enough to be an American."   This got a chuckle from the crowd and a frozen face from the chicky babe that seemed to say "I don't know how to answer this. But look, Jeremy Clarkson is talking to me!"  This seemed a bit rich coming from Clarkson, who cannot hide his own growing paunch. He complains about how his show is seen in every country but the U.S. and doubtless  this is his way of getting even.
    But he is far from the only person who identifies Americans by their waist size.  In OZ, health experts and average citizens all moan about how Australians are one Big Mac away from looking like Americans.  In Asia, where everyone on the planet seems to be bigger than they themselves are, the temptation for the size generalization is greater.
     The first time I personally ran into this identification tendency was in 1992 when my mother and I went on a tall ship cruise in the French & Italian Rivieras. (Yeah, I'm bragging. It was nice.)The tall ship was loaded with Germans -whose growing national prosperity can be witnessed in their growing posteriors. My mother, born and raised in Germany and speaks the language like the native she is, chatted in her mother tongue to many of our shipmates. For awhile anyway, before she got bored with boorish krauts.  Seems one of them was astonished that I was an American ("She's not big enough") yet had no trouble believing Mom was American. I hope I kept a straight face when she told me this. Mom didn't think I looked like a twig, hmmmmph, besides, how could these bozos mistake her absolutely native language ability for something an American could utter?  This was a double annoyance for her. 
    So while movie stars seem to get ever more boney and emaciated, the rest of us had better lay off the Lay's. We've got more than just our health to consider, as if that itself was not enough.

Sustainable Population

       Australia is in a bit of a tizzy.  Her population could soar to 36 million people by 2050 if the population trends continue as they are. Doesn't sound like much for for so huge a piece a land- until you take a look at its topography. It's like a Raisinette, perfectly fine at its exterior edges and all dried up in its massive center.  The lack of water and arable land is not conducive to the building or support of  large population centers. Housing is already in short supply (read: expensive and too dense) , power is expensive and fresh water a bit too scarce.
       So, the phrase "sustainable population" gets batted about a bit. Infrastructure studies are commissioned, alternative energy sources are sought, immigration policy is re-examined and the Federal government changes its practices with a lightning quick speed I would not have believed if I had not seen it with my own eyes.
       But let us back up a bit in history so you have a better idea of what was and what will be.   Before WWII,  Australia employed language and other suitability tests to keep out undesired ethnicities from Asia and points beyond.  The Second World War exposed their vulnerability: they did not have enough people within the nation to protect it,  so many restrictions were lifted. Eventually, inducements of fast visas were made to people willing to fill workforce holes...over 100 professions including hairdressers and chefs. This had an unfortunate consequence of creating an easy side door  for immigration hopefuls and those willing to exploit it.  Training "schools" were founded to 'educate' the hordes of people from India and elsewhere in these desired disciplines. Too many must be just paper mills for visas as there is still said to be a shortage of hairdressers and culinary experts.  There are lots of experienced British police officers on the beat here, but some industries, like mining, are desperate for the much higher skilled engineers of which there are too few.
       Moreover, illegal immigration has picked up the pace.  There is an island off WA's northwest corner, Christmas Island, which has a detention facility for such people.  Viewed as a boondoggle of the previous Federal administration and near empty before I got here, it now has a steady stream of  boats filled with people (mostly Sri Lankans and Afghanis) floating to its shores. [Come to think of it, Columbus didn't have any crack houses before I move there, but...but we are not making any correlations here, ahem] These folks, who had paid huge amounts of money to Indonesian smugglers  to sail over in barely seaworthy craft, hope to supersede those who have gone through legitimate channels for their refugee entry status to be one of the 13,500 true refugees allowed in every year. [And this bit of illegal hopscotch just agitates me  in a big way.] It all became overwhelming for the government to handle.
       Recently, Canberra (seat of the Fed gov't) made an announcement.  Effectively immediately, all preferred profession visa applications less than two years old were cancelled , the list was abolished and soon to be replaced by a smaller, more accurate high-skill list.  Canberra even acknowledged that it may have to refund application fees. People from Sri Lanka or Afghanistan seeking  refugee status visas will now be on mandatory 3-6 month waiting lists before their requests could even begin to be considered. The Australian government was following some international governing body's assessment that  Sri Lanka and Afghanistan may not be  paradises but law & order, free elections and other factors are improving their lot out of refugee qualifications.
       This stop-on-a-dime policy switch was astounding to me. Only in a country as "small" as Australia could this happen or the physical improvements seem possible.  Not even for a moment could I imagine the U.S. (with it population over 15 times as large as OZ)  being able to about-face on any policy so quickly.  The wheels of government churn slowly everywhere on the planet. It will be interesting to see how all the reconsidered immigration, energy generation, resource management and infrastructure improvement will turn out.
      

What's My Name?

   I have about four blog entries started- long overdue for completion and posting. But every time I start to finish them, I get distracted. Either I'm tired, uncomfortable on the patio chair placed at the computer or just distracted by other things.  With resolve, I will refocus myself by posting the distraction.
    
    Lots of people walk in and out of the courts where I work and the parade of names is very entertaining. [I'll be careful here not to release any sensitive or identifying information. Names might be slightly changed to protect the innocent, guilty and, especially, myself.]There are the usual oddball spellings of common names that too many people think is clever when it actually looks dyslexic or worse. Names like Dryw or Linzee.  There are the very common Australian names: Kylie, Charlene, Dannii (also a candidate for the previous category), Graeme/Graham, Shane and Marie/Maree (both pronounced MAR-ee, not ma-REE).   Don't look for any Britneys (any spelling)  or Tobys , these are strictly American names.
    And while we're on national sounding names, hark unto these British options.  The reverted: Bevan, Desmond, Llewellyn.  The boys-only-no-girls names: Lindsay, Ashley. It's perfectly acceptable to call a red-haired boy "Ginger".  Catch these names whose spelling or hyphenation say "God Save the Queen": Hayball, Arkwright, Spratt, Fearnley-Goodacre, Shallcross, Passmore, Oldacres-Dear.  And one morning I thought we had the cast present of a 1970's British comedy, "Are You Being Served?" when a Humphries and a Slocum appeared.
     We are now seeing an extraordinary amount of Indonesian people-smugglers coming through. Not the top of the pyramid organizers, but the guys who do all the sailing and dirty work. They are at the lowest rungs of Indonesian society.  Some have but one name only: Glus or other one syllable utterance.
     Is it a quirky sense of humor or an ill-considered act of cruelty that would lead a parent to name their kid after a favored fictional character or car?  Aston Martin Smith. Christopher Robin Jones.  Thank you, Mother, for not naming me Rusted-Out Rambler Radowick. 

     And the name that started the musing. I cannot tell myself, much less you, why such a name would capture my imagination. Neither is common but neither is unheard of. The combination is odd.  But the possibilities for Melvin Rex are endless.
 

Second Anniversary

     Today - April 14, 2010 - is the second anniversary of my arrival here in Australia. 
       No, my life isn't exactly how I envisioned it, particularly in the career category. The state's boom economy apparently  bust for me long before the GFC hit. So although I am not on a high-powered, fast track professional position (at the mo), the position I do have provides some of the variety and voyeurism enjoyed in my previous life in the media.
      In an international move, one wonders, " Will I ever fit in?"  or even "Will I fit in too well?"  I rather fear the day when my blood has gotten "too thin"  to enjoy the wintery weather that allows one to make snow angels or obliges you to scrape ice off the windshield on a daily basis. Or getting to the point that 89F is too cold to go swimming. Uber wimpy.
      When do people cease to sound foreign? Australians, of course, not me.  Last year Kev and I took a road trip south to the Pemberton area. It's a rare and delightfully  green place, which is why a movie was being shot there. We managed to catch a bit of work as extras and bumped into one of the lead actors, an American.  I asked how he liked it here and he had a prepared statement about the area.  This is all well and good, but showed that he didn't "hear" a foreign voice. After many years in this country, an Australian accent sounded as familiar as an American one. I was slightly annoyed by the lack of recognition at the time. Last Sunday I had to laugh at myself.  After church, woman asked where I was from. I gave my customary "US/Canadian border" answer and then detected a faint annoyance in her expression.  I wasn't listening for her accent, which it turns out is more like mine than Kev's.
        Do I remember the day I arrived?  Of course.  It was almost half past one in the morning when the taxi dropped us off at home after a 20 minute ride from the airport.  Kev went to work several hours after that.  I went to the library and signed up for a library card. What else does one do on their first day in a foreign  land?
        And how did I observe this anniversary?  I mailed my U.S. tax return. Not quite the same as a glass of champagne.
      

Easter Bilby

Happy Easter!  OK, a few days late but I had to get artwork for this postcard.  By now, you've gone through the initial supplies of chocolate goodies, painted eggs, jelly beans and ham.  Perhaps you've already made a raid on the post-holiday, 50% off sales racks in the stores.  Look closely, you may be surprised at what you find.  I sure was.

 Hello Easter Bilby and Easter Wombat.  You may be hollow creations of Cadbury chocolate  but you bring great joy to Australian children on their way to diabetic shock. Never mind those Easter bunnies, a reminder of the scourge they have become on this land after some farmer brought them in from Europe for hunting without realizing they had no natural enemies to keep their numbers down. A pox on them. We have the shy Bilby, with its looooong ears, loooong nose and looong tail to immortalize in mounds of theobroma.   And let us not forget you, O Humble Wombat, built like a fire hydrant with four legs and a hairy nose.  You have a cute name and are positively adorable with your fur the color of milk chocolate. munch, munch, munch. No wonder Aussies of all ages hold you in awe and fond memory.
     What is noticeably missing here are the mounds jelly beans that appear at Easter time in North America. And outside a few notable cultural cliques (like the Polish Heritage Centre), decorated  chicken eggs don't figure prominently in the celebrations.  Did I smuggle a PAAS egg dyeing kit into the country? Can't find it if I did.  That's OK,  I'm good.  And waiting for the 75% off sales.