Butts Out!

    October saw some tough, and for me, welcome, new laws come onto the books.  I suppose one should not cheer a segment of the population being marginalized but I am only too happy to have smokers far, far away from my lungs.
    Cigarettes have heavy taxes on them. A pack of twenty costs $12-15 each. Legislating a further deterrent for those who light up requires manufacturers to put gross pictures of mouth cancers  next to the warnings on the packaging. Well, people have found their way around such inconveniences by cutting back on other spending or buying  cigarette pack covers. In a bold move, the new laws limit where you can actually smoke including: not inside any car where a child under 16 is present, further than 10 yards from a playground and no cigarette packages are allowed to be displayed or otherwise visible to the public.  This is bold because Australians dislike being told they cannot do something (It's a nanny state!)  but clearly everything leading up to this move has not worked.  In a country that has a national health service, the government is all too keen to rid themselves of the healthcare bill smoking escalates.  
    The debate continues on whether packaging for cigarettes should be devoid of any embellishment.  This does not please manufacturers. Having their logos, color schemes, fonts and artwork all reduced to buff colored cardboard with Times New Roman print on it is making them very itchy.
    It's hard for me to feel much sympathy for them.  So much of the Korean population smoked like hot turds in January that my last six months there were marked by one long case of bronchitis.  Cigarettes are one habit worth breaking, in my view.  Butts out!
    

Halloween? Australian Style

Happy Halloween!   It's 4:08 pm, the time when most kids are going out of their gourds back home. The excitement is palpable. Is it time to get our costumes on? No, Mom, help me with my costume first.   Don't I look gross? Bwa ha ha haaaaaa.  What, eat something nutritious first before Trick or Treating?  I wonder if anyone is giving away full size candy bars.  The neighbors really fix up their house to look scary.

   Halloween is a bit of a nonstarter here in Australia. "It's an American thing..." grumble parents . They feel it has been foisted on them by their kids who have watched every TV show and movie out of the U.S. featuring kids trick or treating and want to do the same.  Halloween parties are more common but some of my colleagues say that a few kids  knock on their door (and are ignored.)  
   Commercial entities don't miss a trick, however.  The cheapie discount stores have their disposable costume pieces and hanging cardboard skeletons out right next to their grand Christmas displays.  The two major grocery store chains make an effort, but it is alternately painful and humorous to watch them miss the mark.  The classic orange pumpkin used for carving into jack o' lanterns in North America is an exotic species here with a price to match: $26 for a pumpkin size of your head.  Little cardboard placards reminding us to "Don't forget Halloween" hang by the eggs , Brie cheese and Lindt chocolates. Who's giving away full size Lindt chocolate bars, I ask?  I'll start knocking on doors.

    So what will I be doing this evening?  Entertaining my brother and sister-in-law with a corned beef and cabbage supper.  It ends an exciting day of making jam, going to church, canning tomatoes, stirring up some gingerbread cookie dough and cleaning the house.        Trick or Treat!

Car Clubs

    One fine weekend afternoon we went for a drive in the valley and, lo, what did we come upon but a car meet.  Austin Healeys, ancient to merely vintage, all on display on the village green.  One doesn't need to have grown up in The Motor City (Detroit, Michigan) or be a gearhead to enjoy looking at cool cars.  While it is cool to have an eternal parade of four wheel fantasy drive past you on Michigan's Woodward Avenue, having ubiquitous car clubs, in even the most unlikely corners of OZ, is grand also.  
    Every small town seems to have a classic car club in it with cars regularly on display. Every nation of automotive engineering excellence has a well attended public exhibitions.  The German, the British, the Italian car clubs are now spit-shining their chrome parts for a Spring display somewhere in the metro area.
     And all are in incredible condition. There is none of the winter road salt corrosion seen on cars as in the American Rust Belt. Kev argues that the Indian Ocean puts salt in the air, but I think this beautiful Racing Green  Austin Healey must be too fast for any NaCl particles to land on it.    And really, I checked.   Very closely. 
I do not even remotely qualify as an automotive buff, but I always enjoyed  going to the Henry Ford Museum  and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan during their antique car weekends.  Elegant Silver Shadows are parked alongside jalopies in the parking lot. So much eye candy and you haven't even officially entered the Village!

But here in Western Australia, the magic is on display also. Those who have it (and there are many) flaunt it.  Kind of like fancy dog breed owners. The interiors gleam, the engines are steam cleaned -and some painted, as well- so tops are down and  hoods are up. We drool, take photos, ask questions and owners burst with pride.


    This just doesn't happen in the state of Western Australia.  The island state of Tasmania had a Ford Model T meet and rally. Just Model T's. 
     And wasn't I jealous just watching the footage on TV.

     Not to cast aspersions  on our own Faithful Steed, but gawking at the classics is a fine thing to do on a fine afternoon.
     
    

Victoria Park Toastmasters

Sandra in Action

Toast on display in library

    Well, everyone who knows me knows that I'm not toooooo shy.  Speaking in front of a crowd poses very little difficulty for me. In fact, I love an Audience.
      So why would I join a speaking group like ToastMasters? I had been to a TM meeting with a friend almost ten years ago and nothing clicked in the Interest or Need departments.
   Call it a convergence in my universe when I finally realized : other people existed and were interesting in the world, potential employers glancing at their watches or eyes glazing over while you talk is not a good sign, and that my best stories/answers  came to me about an hour after they were needed.  The classic TMJ Syndrome--Too Much Jaw. I needed to learn to say more while speaking less. Be brilliantly brief instead of volunteering voluminous verbiage.  And when a new ToastMasters branch was starting up here in Victoria Park on the next street, motive and opportunity met. I signed up.  Everyone feels the benefits straight away.  We learn some excellent technique and the Commendation-Recommendation-Commendation style of evaluation by fellow members is helpful without being confrontational or unsupportive.
     Admittedly, some Toasties are pretty hardcore.  They don't have and don't want any other activities in their lives, or so it seems.  Most of us at Vic Park just want to improve our speaking.  Our six month old club is too new to start dreaming of TM world domination but we went ahead with the annual speech contest process this year.  Yours Truly won both the Humorous Speech and Table Topic sections at our branch. I went on to our District comp but was edged out.  This is O.K.  The experience was yet another reminder not to go over time on my speeches (a chronic issue for this gal) and frees me up to help judge other speech competitions.
     And it frees me up to start working on the speech due on Monday.  I could enlighten everyone on how to win blue ribbons at state fairs.  But can it be done in under seven minutes...?