weird canberra

had a very nice last night in sydney. we all sat outside the hostel drinking beer and watching all the drunks go by. it was v sociable. met a couple of people who are heading to melbourne so i'll have some friends when i get there. i was particularly taken with tony the italian's writing book, somewhat romantically dampened by the rain we've been having. how lovely is it?! it looks like the etchings of a disordered mind or some revolutionary scribblings of a genius. it's how i imagine vitruvius wrote about his thoughts on architecture. just lovely. another lovely thing that i have been seeing recently is this sculpture in the park by the lake in canberra. i really like the lady's elegance. and her ability to maintain a straight back whilst sitting. she would have made a perfect piano player. it's by a chap called herman hohaus. nice.

and so to canberra. i'd forgotten the trauma of using public transport. in nz we were spoiled as the tour bus took us straight to the hostel and picked us up from the hostel too. no getting up mega early in order to trek across town to get to the bus stop mega early in order to get in the queue. 5.45am i got up! but it was quite nice because barnsley sam was working the night shift so i made him a cup of tea and we chatted whilst i had my breakfast and made my emergency sandwich in case i got hungry on the bus. felt strangely like my mum, making a sensible pack-up. but sam gave me a top tip to solve the trauma of the soggy sandwich. you just need to sprinkle salt and pepper on the cucumber and it stops the bread getting all crappy. genius! it works and everything.

was really quite dreading getting back on the dirty dog of a greyhound, given the traumatic experiences we had in america. however, australia seems to be able to organise a piss-up in a brewery. i got an allocated seat, there was loads more leg room in the bus, there were no weirdos on the bus, and there was a FLUSH TOILET. yes. it's amazing how easy it is, really. someone should tell uncle sam. it was nice getting public transport, actually, rather than being on the special bus for special people. the journey went swimmingly. the land seemed so much more stretched out compared to nz, and all dry, brown and arid, compared to the lush green of nz. i know i shall keep comparing the two and australia will have to do a lot to make me like it as much as nz. but i'll give it a chance.

canberra itself is one of the strangest places i've ever been. it's a planned city and overly so. there are big wide boulevards. it seems the city was built around the car. and it makes it really impersonal. i wandered to the park with its planned, artificial lake, and you have to walk alongside a dual carriageway to get there, which always feels quite isolating. the other weird thing is that there was no-one around. the few people on the street were office workers in suits with different kinds of security passes and the only other kinds of people i saw were joggers. it was like a 'brave new world' where you are either at work or you are taking part in activities that are good for you and sanctioned by above. i felt like i walking about in 'the truman show', everything seemed so mechanical and orderly and logical. there is a big water jet in the lake that shoots out water 90 metres into the air. even this seemed out of place, like an uncle nobhead wearing a brightly coloured bowtie to 'prove' that he was cool really. the place is really quiet. it makes you want to shout really loudly just to see whether other people will hear you. something tells you they won't.

so it took a while to get used to. i sat in the park and was thinking how isolating the place is, everyone in their own bubbles, either in their cars or in their ipods whilst jogging. but then as i sat and watched the ducks and the occasional jogger that went past, i thought, actually, this is the misanthrope's heaven. you don't have to talk to anyone! and from then on i became to like the place. the modern buildings that before i'd compared unfavourably to the elegance of european capital cities or even the stateliness of washington suddenly made more sense to me. this is a place that prides itself on being modern and part of that is the planned-ness and efficiency. you only have to look at the new parliament building to realise that (pic). it is built into the landscape and has a grassed roof. it made me think of the teletubbies when i first saw it. but then i went inside and, yes, it has a bit of a feel of a modern conference centre but it also manages to exude a certain stateliness aswell. it's not completely soulless. i visited the old parliament house, which is much more in the classical tradition, and it was a nice contrast on what they were trying to achieve with the new one. i got myself a ticket for question time in parliament and watched the mps behaving like mps everywhere. i don't think anything actually ever gets done in any parliament session. it was basically all about point scoring but it was interesting because it showed what are the important things in australia at the moment and also how the different parties defined themselves. the main discussion was about whether nuclear power plants are to be built in australia. john howard played the grand old statesman whilst the opposition was the tough interogator of an arrogant government. it was quite entertaining to watch.

and then it was a really weird night last night. even though it's summer and really hot and everything, we had a major major storm last night. like nothing i've seen in new york or new orleans. the water bucketed down and it even began to sleet! fire alarms were going off left, right and centre around the city. and this morning most of the leaves on the trees has been pulled off by the sheer weight of the rain and there was actually still snow around! people were taking photos of it and actually touching it to see whether it was real! it must be global warming for you. but it certainly adds to the general weirdness of this place. plus, when i was buying a newspaper this morning, the bloke behind the counter straight away started asking me what music i liked, which was a bit disconcerting. i mean, i was only buying a paper. and then when i picked the paper off the counter there was a pen and paper on it which i moved to pick up my stuff. it only occured to me afterwards while i was walking down the street that maybe he wanted me to write my number on it. bizarre. but maybe the cool new tops are working. what a strange place.