I was made for Afternoons

Why Australia should see a hung parliament as a sign of growing up. So, finally, it’s over. One of the most boring, nasty and downright uninspiring election campaigns this country has ever seen. Neither major party had much to say, apart from repeatedly publically denigrating the other on issues large, small and irrelevant. The result? A thoughtful and generally unimpressed public made the decision we all foresaw: a tie. Choosing the best from a bad bunch had never been more difficult. The next few days and weeks will be a monumental time in Australian politics, with the possibilities of major political and social change, not to mention the balance of power in the lower house, lying with the four or five independent and minor parties. Will our political system be able to cope with the possibilities of the two established parties no longer been able to call the shots, and issues which feature broadly in regional and country Australia for once been given legitimate consideration and ...

Thanks to a conservative blog for peace I have become quite intrigued by with US series “Mad men”. For most Australians this is quite an unknown program, the second series being premiered this Sunday night on specialized broadcaster SBS, leaving us well behind the US which is currently airing the fourth series. For those who don’t know, Mad Men takes place in the early 1960’s, varying its setting between the main characters Advertising office workspace, their homes and social lives. As the series progresses we discover that the characters are not at all what they seem, both outwardly and inwardly, as we journey with them through the historical events and changing social patterns which have influenced so much of our modern culture. It is this historical element which captured me. The ways husbands, wives and children inter-related. The constant smoking and drinking. The more relaxed pace of life. Infidelity and the subsequent risks and consequences. Psycho-analysis just beginning ...

Or why religion should never be discussed during the soccer. Friday and Saturday are all about soccer in our house. The prince plays indoors on Friday nights (which he loves) and outdoors early on Saturday morning (about which he, is fairly ambivalent about because it interrupts his café breakfast and tv time). He plays in a local “Christian” League (read here: Protestant). It suits us because the games are on Saturday and that means we can still get to Mass with the kids and at least have Sundays as some sort of rest day. After a few weeks of standing on the sidelines you get to know a few of the other parents who brave the early winter mornings. The usual questions as follows: What do you do? (A sort of Chaplain) Oh okay, Where? (an inner city school). Isn’t that a catholic school? (Yes it is). Insert long pause here. So are you a catholic? (mumble. Yes - a convert). Insert longer pause. You should talk to so and so’s dad. He’s a catholic too I think – but he goes to a charis...