Swine Flu

While the global swine flu epidemic appears to have fallen off the front pages of most newspapers in the northern hemisphere, the disease is rapidly making its way through the Australian population. At present, there are 254 cases confirmed in Australia and thousands have been quarantined. Both numbers are rising by the hour as the disease continues to pop up just about everywhere, although Melbourne has been ground zero for most of the victims. A number of schools have closed, cruise ships have been asked to remain at sea, and doctor's offices are overflowing as anxious cold-sufferers seek medical advice (it doesn't help that swine flu rocked up in Australia during the regular flu season). One alarmist has estimated that a full 20% of the Australian population could be affected before its all over.

Easy Come, Easy Go!

The beauty of the modern era is one's ability to sign away large quantities of cash in a heartbeat. For the past month, we've been struggling to come to terms with the fact that our little Getz (featured here back in 2006) is not equipped to handle the additional responsibilities that will come with our soon-to-be-expanded family. Hence, this afternoon we closed the deal on a new i30 wagon - German styling at a Korean price and plenty of room for bub, prams and a couple of grandparents (should they be brave enough to travel down under).

Eskimo Joe - Foreign Land

Australia's own Eskimo Joe is back with a new album, Inshalla. The clip above is the first single off the new album.

Samson And Delilah

Many folks around the world spent a few hours during 2008 suffering through Australia, an attempt to elevate the stature of Australia (both as a continent and as a film-making nation). Depending upon whom you ask, that film accomplished neither goal. However, Australia is no stranger to quality films, they just tend to be of the low-budget, but substantive variety. At Cannes over the weekend, a young upstart director, Warwick Thorton, earned recognition for his debut film, Samson and Delilah. No doubt, the film will be limited to the world's art house cinemas, but it's a good testament to the fact that good things can come in small packages. Perhaps more importantly, it shows the lives of Australia's indigenous people with brutal honesty.

What do Australians do when they travel overseas? A recent article in The Age answers the question:

Wedgies and petty theft tie up consular staff
Tim Elliott
May 23, 2009

"TOUCHING up a Singapore Airlines flight attendant, giving drinkers "wedgies" at Oktoberfest and pilfering bar mats from Phuket bars. Australians love to travel and are, it seems, finding ever more unorthodox ways of extending time overseas - even if it means bunking down in the lock-up."

World's Largest Pub Crawl

If you had to guess which country holds the Guinness world record for the world's largest pub crawl, you'd probably be pretty safe picking Australia. Furthermore, if you had to pick a part of Australia that would host such an event, it would almost certainly be Queensland. As it happens, the Queensland town of Maryborough has apparently won the title 3 of the past 4 years, losing out to London in 2006. On June 7, Maryborough battles for the 2009 championship. Good Luck!

Check out the details at http://worldsgreatestpubcrawl.com/.