Dotpoint 1: Last weekend was the Beanie Festival in Alice Springs. I can hear you saying: WTF?!? I shall explain.
In winter in Alice Springs it gets COLD compared to coastal Australia. How cold? Well, minus 6 (centigrade) is the coldest I’ve ever experienced, but most of the time the nights are down around 0. And one thing lots of us do over winter is go camping in the amazing landscapes around us.
Thus, we need beanies to keep our heads warm.
And the Beanie Festival was born…
The Beanie Festival is something you should come to Alice Springs for. It is not just about beanies. It’s about music, food, making beanies, socialising and people watching. It’s very, very alternative, but the town –my town which has a significant number of rednecks in it- has embraced the Beanie Festival.
And there are about 5000 beanies for sale.
Not boring old grey beanies that fishermen wear. And they’re not the beanies that your gran used to make, either. We’re talking works of art. Wool sculptures, dreadlocks, emu feathers. Beads. These beanies are yummy works of art.
Look. Just come. Next year, book a plane ticket to Alice Springs last weekend in June and see why the Beanie Festival is so amazing.
Dotpoint 2: Explosions. Happy Territory Day. More Explosions!
July 1 every year, is Territory Day. It’s where we get to buy fireworks and try to kill each other celebrate the Northern Territory’s transition to self-government in 1978. In Alice Springs and Darwin the streets sound like Beirut in 1973 are full of people letting off $1000s of fireworks.
This year I was in Darwin for work, so I saw the cracker craziness on Vestey’s Beach. I could also see the official NT fireworks display set up on a barge anchored just off Mindil Beach. To the amusement of those standing around us, we hummed ‘The Final Countdown’ really loudly as the display went off. (And made a lot of people crack up).
The display was fantastic. So impressive, I’m sure Tennant Creek Hospital probably won’t be able to employ doctors for the next six months.
But that’s the Territory for you. Explosions before doctors. Can’t cramp that famous Territory Lifestyle.
Dotpoint #3: Do NOT Let Your Kids Hook up their Wii Online.
The other day, I thought there was something wrong with the internet because it was slooooow. Next day, same story, so I called Telstra. Seems our account had been ‘shaped’ because we’d exceeded our (apparently) unlimited download limit.
Turns out with Telstra, there’s no such thing as unlimited. Be warned, folks.
Also, I learned that using your Wii to play international Mario Kart sucks megabytes like there’s no tomorrow.
As for my account being ‘shaped’… I really wanted to laugh when I heard this. Why not ‘limited’ or ‘slowed’? This is spin doctoring gone too far.
It’s like the time someone said: “We’re going to migrate the printers…” at work. I immediately thought: Migrate them? Where? Italy? New Zealand? Will I see a whole flock of printers going north for the winter?
Telstra. Pfft!
‘Shaped’ Double pfft!
Mario Kart. 🙂
AnthroYogini 