Gutted

Lofty often takes the wee ones out for a bracing walk in the pram before I'm awake of a morning. A few weeks ago he came back wild-eyed and frantic, spitting out -- with much hand-waving -- chunks of a story that took me some time to piece together.

As it turns out, they were on one of the lovely bikeways we have in the area when Lofty spotted a crow swoop down and pluck something off the adjacent soccer field. Looked like a rat or other small creature; he didn't think much of it and kept walking.

The crow flew up in a great arc, landing on a branch over the path. Whatever it was carrying dropped and landed right in the pram.

The "thing", as it turns out, wasn't a rat or small animal at all, but the decomposing gut of something larger, possibly a possum, and was oozing with semi-digested goop from the tear down its length. And it landed right on little Edie's face.

Little Edie is very difficult to get to sleep at times, and she'd only just dropped off after a couple of hours' solid screaming. As it hit she let out a god-awful shriek which brought not only Lofty but two other nearby walkers rushing. The thing hit her across the eye and seeped goo all over her face and down her neck; thankfully missing her mouth. Lofty snatched her up, one of the walkers bravely scooped the goo out of the pram with a couple of leaves, and together they all ran up to the shopping centre to wash her off. There's a camaraderie among early morning walkers.

It hit hard enough to leave a red mark for several days. So young to learn about the cruelties of the world.

War on Tourists

This Mohammed Haneef thing mystified me for some time. I wasn't paying particular attention when the story first surfaced, but as it developed I thought I must have been missing some vital piece of the story.

Giving someone a SIM card doesn't constitute an act of terrorism, thought I. I mean, it's the kind of thing I would do if I was leaving a country. "I don't have any use for this any more, but if you can use it you're welcome to it." Seems fairly innocuous, don't you think? As it turns out, the Australian Federal Police would beg leave to differ on that point. And yes, that was pretty much all there was to the story.

I think the root of Dr Haneef's problems are in translation. I heard George W on the radio recently banging on about "the war on turr". He was all for bringing the turrists to justice. Poor old John Howard, with his impaired hearing, thought that to mean "tourists", so the likes of the Indian doctor are in for a hard time. I'm sure there's no malice intended.

The whole affair is yet another shameful episode for Australia, and an absolute nightmare for Dr Haneef. He flew home to Bangalore last night to be with his wife and newborn son after his ordeal. After all the backpedaling the AFP have been doing you'd think that the government would have the good grace to leave the guy alone now. But tonight the Immigration Minister said that the doctor's departure only served to make him "more suspicious", despite the charges brought against him being proven to be baseless. And it seems unlikely that his work visa will be reinstated. I just find this incredible.

If I was in Dr Haneef's position I'd be high-tailing it out of here at my earliest opportunity, too.

Hitchoock Had It Right

Frickin' magpies. They come into the house if I forget to shut the back screen door. Then they freak out and fly around the house, bumping into things and shitting everywhere. There's one sitting on top of the pantry right now, tap dancing on the baking trays. They're not too bright: the pantry is right next to the back door and freedom.



Half and hour later this idiotic bird was still flying past the open doors in a panic.