January

You, Dear Reader, (the singular you – I would be totally delusional, not to mention presumptuous, if I thought for one minute there was more than one reader. See this post earlier in the month) will have noticed there is a certain pattern to the minimal activity around blog posting in the Soup Kitchen.

There is a minor flurry of activity at the beginning of each year; possibly it’s something to do with the undeniable move forward into yet another year.  A fresh sheet, marked 2018, begging to have something written on it. And so, the January posts get under way.  It may be only a short time before they falter and fall into total neglect but January is the month where the blog puts on a bold, brave, forward-looking face, the post machine is cranked up and begins to churn out the material.

It’s also the month that stretches away through the expected hot days; cafes which have been closed for the holiday break re-open as the days pass and mothers heave a sigh of relief as the end of the month draws near. They turn to the task of filling book lists, uniforms are pulled out, passed on if they are too small and replaced in time for another year of growth.

It’s also the month where people take advantage of time away from their work place. They may go down to the Surf Coast, or any other coast which takes their fancy.  It’s the time of the year when those holiday houses which often stand empty for many months of the year are alive with families, their friends and passing visitors, who take the opportunity of a break away from the city.

The tennis juggernaut rolls into town, activity is observed at the Tennis Centre from the windows of passing trams and there is much talk about who will win what and every second tennis player seems to sport a totally unpronounceable name. Yes, the Australian Open is the sporting news of the moment.

The second national public holiday presents itself on January 26 and without a shadow of doubt it will be accompanied by much media hype about the suitability of the date, sides will be taken and opinions stated.

That’s January in a nutshell.

Surf Coast                                                       Archive photo: Year unknown

Yachts

In December, in this part of the world, the thoughts of men who sail on yachts and other interested parties, turn to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race , and those other lesser sailing races between Victorian and Tasmania.  The latter, though not in the same league as The Big One, are equally important to those who compete in them. 

I have watched the televised start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race for many years and it was standard viewing on Boxing Day each year, in the family home. 

A yachtsman from Adelaide, interviewed on radio prior to this year’s race, was asked what training his team did before the race.  His laconic response was to suggest that sailing their yacht from Adelaide to the race start in Sydney, was suitable preparation for his team.

The setting on Sydney Harbor is spectacular, the jostling for positions adds drama and once the spinnakers have broken out, it is a truly wonderful scene to behold as the yachts make their way to the Heads and the start of a sometimes difficult and dangerous race. 

I don’t always see the televised start these days but I did catch part of it this year.  And a very bad tempered, abusive man from one of the leading contenders for taking out line honours was extremely vocal about other yacht crews who crowded him and ruined his flying start.

What a tantrum!

If he was unhappy about the start, can you imagine the language (not captured on television) when his yacht was forced to withdraw from the race due to a broken hydraulic ram.  This happened on Day 2, just as the yacht entered Bass Strait and it was the second year in a row it had withdrawn from the race.

Yachts come from all over the world to compete and this year Perpetual Loyal, a yacht from NSW, took out Line Honours after a disappointing race last year when it too, was forced to pull out with rudder damage. 

Owning and sailing yachts is can be a very expensive and not always rewarding pastime. 

Perpetual Loyal arrives at the finish line at Hobart

Australian values

A fifteen year old, who was recently asked about Australian values, said we didn’t have any.  Whether we didn’t have any values or whether those values were not particularly Australian but might also apply to other countries in the world, was not made clear.

At the time of Federation in Australia, when the Constitution was drawn up, contemporary values such as the right to vote for a democratically elected parliament, freedom of religion, freedom to join a trade union and the freedom to move unhindered around the country were included. Other less defined values might be respect for the individual, equal rights for men and women and equality under the law for everyone.

My idea of an Australian value is that of the ‘fair go’. 

‘Hey, fair go mate.’ The phrase once embedded in the Australian vernacular; not an expression which might have been heard among the erudite and well educated set but one used by people lower down on the socio-economic ladder.  Quite simply it meant that something was plainly unfair, something should to be done to rectify this unfairness and voicing the thought was the first step in putting things to rights.

Whatever happened to the idea of the Fair Go?  It has vanished, sunk without trace, gone the way of the dodo wearing its button-up boots. Pushed right into the background in the contemporary scene, where anything but a Fair Go applies to many, many people.  I will not start on the unfairness list here but it is apparent that many people want to apply the Fair Go only to themselves and to hell with anyone else.

For many people in this country it’s all about me and what’s in it for me these days.