Australian police

I don't want to say anything... well that could get me arrested... but obviously anything can these days.

The Australian Police force should be ashamed about what they consider a worth prosecution. In a time when murders, rapes and child abuse can't be solved because of not enough man hours, you see something like this in the news:

• Child abuse charges for 'laughing baby' video
• Simpsons' sex toon is child porn

And police wonder why they have little respect in the community. I wonder how much it has cost to prosecute these cases. These two men have had their lives ruined for doing what millions of people do every day.

What next - Assault on a plushy!

Weird Animals...

This months installment of weird animals should be called "Creepy Crawlies to Scare the Pants Off a Kiwi".

The spider in this photo is a Huntsman Spider. Isn't he cute - not. This particular one was living under our kitchen sink.

Huntsman Spiders have 8 eyes, and can have a leg span of up to 30cm. Pretty big and scary!

They do bite, but only cause a small amount of pain and are not harmfully to humans. Huntsman don't use a web to catch their prey, but hunt them down - hence the name Huntsman.

They are actually good to have around the house (I am told!) because they eat insects you don't want inside.

But if the spider in this picture appeared in my house, I would be grabbing a cricket bat or can of spray - I'd rather have bugs than this any day!

News Flash

Research shows that smoking while pregnant harms your baby.

Ok, so it's not new, and everyone knows this fact.

So why do so many Australian women smoke when they are pregnant. I see it almost on a daily basis.

And every second car has someone smoking in it, with children in the back.

How can people be so stupid when they know the damage it's doing?

If you smoke while pregnant you should be charged with child abuse.

All Things Rugby - Union and League

I feel sorry for Brisbane sports fans - particularly those who are fans of the funny shaped ball.

You see two Saturday nights in a row I have been to a packed Suncorp Stadium - the first for the Bledisloe Cup, and the second for the Broncos vs Storm NRL semi-final.

I feel sorry for those home fans who paid a couple of hundred dollars to get to see both games - and see both home teams lose.

Ok, when I reflect on a glorious victory by the All Blacks, that feeling soon disappears!

It's Cold!

We've lived in Australia for just over a year, and it seems we've become acclimatised already.

Today was cold - 17 degrees. The heater's cranked up tonight, as it's supposed to get down to around 5 or 6 degrees.

Coming from Dunedin it seems really odd - 17 degrees would be more than you could hope for at this time of year! 5 or 6 would usually be the high!

The (Rugby) Boot's on the Other Foot

Recent news reports suggest that Rugby League in Australia is in disarray, because Rugby Union is "poaching" players from the NRL.

There's 2 points I have to make about that:

1. Pay your players more - Sonny Bill is worth more than $200,000 per season. Unless the salary cap is increased it will keep happening.
   
   
2. Now the boot is on the other foot, the NRL don't like it. It's not that long ago that Union players were being poached by cashed up league clubs.

Don't get me wrong, I do like league, but when the administrators and coaches get paid more than the players then there's a real problem. In the words of SBW, "The fans don't turn up to see David Moffit".

Google Street View

Good on the people at Google, for coming up with another world first - Google Street View. Australia is the 3rd country in the world to be imaged by Google's team of magical cars.

For anyone who doesn't know what it is, a team of cars drove every street in the country with digitals cameras mounted on all angles. All of the images were stuck together and you can get a 360 degree view of any street in the country.


On tonights news there was the typical news report when something new like this comes out. The camera crew went into Brisbane and asked people what they thought of it.

Most people seemed to think it was a breach of their privacy. It amazed me how stupid people are - most of them seemed to give off the impression that they thought there were web cams pointed at everyones house.

Now I've been outside for about an hour and looked everywhere, and still can't find that damned webcam!

Weird Animals in Australia

Back by popular demand - my Weird Animals in Australia segment.

The animal in the bucket that looks like a snake, is not actually a snake - it is in fact a legless lizard. To the average uninitiated person, it looks like a snake, slithers like a snake and is scaly like a snake. But it's a fair dinkum lizard.

You can see just below the head a tiny little leg (yes, I know, how can it be a legless lizard if it does actually have legs?).

The legless lizard, like all other Australian lizards, is non venomous, and can reach up to 60 cm long.

Winter in Oz

As a kiwi who has been living in Aussie for just over a year, I'm still getting used to the weather in South East Queensland.

It's the middle of winter, and usually at home in Dunedin I'd be suffering through below zero temperatures, snow, rain and hail. And that's just a good day.

Today in Brisbane the temperature was in the mid 20s - that's a great summers day in New Zealand.

If this is winter, I can take it!