Wrist Brace.
Apparently writing a novel on my phone 3 or 4 times a week is hard on my forearm. That combined with a chunky monkey sweet babe, and my right arm is in some pretty annoying pain. I thought that it would heal itself, but after 7 months of dealing with the pain, I thought a wrist guard for a couple weeks might be all it needs to fix itself.
My first day of wearing it to work has generated lots of questions. The comedians in the office think that Jay has been misbehaving. After the usual banter, I set the record straight and say it is a combo of the baby and blogging.
My cube buddy, Matt, overheard my explanation and was interested in hearing more about the blog. So, I gave him the link with a warning that it might take him a month to read from start to finish.
He didn’t waste any time and came to work this morning with news that he read the whole thing last night. He said he is a fast reader and skimmed over the kid stuff, but it took him about 40 minutes to read it all. Not bad for 4 months of writing. He said he had some questions that he wanted to talk about later (in other words, when we weren’t sitting around everyone else). I was of course intrigued about what I had written that he would want to discuss in private, so I sent him an instant message as soon as I had a chance. He started by giving me a bit of a history lesson and had answered some of the mysteries I have raised in the past. See below for his slightly edited rendition of my Aussie history lesson.

Australia Day.
It marks the date the first fleet landed on the shore of Australia in 1788. It is a contentious issue because the aborigines call it ‘invasion day’ and the republicans would prefer it be when we became a federation. Also Australia has nowhere near the patriotism of the US and hence the dullness of celebrations :). There are many many cultures that make up the modern day Australia and sadly the Australia that is seen in the movies pretty much started to die out in the 60’s.
See, originally Captain James Cook found the great Southern Land in 1770. The English claimed it but didn’t know what to do with it because it was so far away at the time. 20 years later they decided to send their prisoners here. The first white Australians were convicts!!
Of course some free settlers made their way too. For the first 100 years most of the people were British, Irish or German. The three cultures sort of developed into the “Australia” that is portrayed in the movies.
By WW1 and moreso after WW2 most of the settlers were Italian – Australia was quite a racist place and for some time had the ‘white Australia policy” which is exactly how it is worded. Once this was abolished, there was a rush of Asian immigrants in the 70’s and 80’s and by the 90’s a lot of muslims. The ‘culture’ has drastically changed in the last 25 years.
We have become a very politically correct place. My long worded draft is basically to bring about this point – there are many many backgrounds of different nationalites that have never really pulled together i guess you could say. Hence the lack of patriotism that is so evident in America 🙂

Fuel Pumps.
Fuel pumps that pump themselves till your tank is full were used here for years till OH&S decided it wasn’t ‘safe’. Now we all have to hold the damn pump!

Most Embarrassing Moment.
Now the question i have is… please please please don’t tell me “Mr Australia” is {insert name}!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

omg!!!!!! I almost died of embarrassment.

Pictures.
Here are some pictures that Brian and Mindy took last weekend.