One of the things I really miss about the UK is the standard of broadcasting - not only on the television (Australian TV is pretty dire!) but also on the radio! Seems like the main qualification to be a radio presenter here is to have been an ex-footballer or a friend of someone famous - imagine David Beckham, or Victoria's Beckham's bridesmaid presenting on the radio, and you're probably already 100% better than the choices here!
The best station I've found that doesn't make me get to the end of a car journey with tightly gritted teeth (usually) is ABC News Radio - I listen on 972 am - an Australia-wide network that plays a lot of programmes from both the BBC, an American Station called NPR, and a German one called Deutsche Welle Radio. I miss spoken word comedy stuff on the radio though, so still use the internet at home to listen to lots of stuff like Radio 4's The News Quiz and The Now Show, as well as my dirty, guilty little secret - The Archers Omnibus edition!
Driving home from Port Adelaide this afternoon though, listening to ABC, and had to consciously restrain myself from yelling at the radio! Now I'm not highly educated, don't have a doctorate or even a degree, and the highest qualification I hold is in bi-lingual travel and tourism, but even I can hear that this is wrong: .... "we need to ensure we come out of this recession better than what we went into it".... and a little later "stronger than what we were before".... aaarrrgggghhhh, enough with the "what"!! Once I could understand, the nerves of being interviewed on radio, the strong wish to get a message across, but this, or similar (each with that aberrant "what") was repeated five - count them - five times! Who was the interviewee? The "Federal President of the Australian Education Union" - I give up...........is it me????
On a brighter note, the local library has an excellent stock of books on tape/cd, available to borrow free of charge, so I shall be saving my blood pressure in future and listening to Terry Pratchett books whilst driving instead (I've tried Jodie Piccoult, but have found it's difficult to drive whilst crying and some of her books are soooo harrowing).
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Adelaide Central Market
Went into Adelaide Central Market today to stock up on cheese for our girlie weekend. The plan was to kill two birds with one stone and drop OH off to sit his citizenship test in Currie Street en route.
Firstly, I've not been to the market on a Wednesday before - we tend to go on either Friday night or Saturday: Friday night is good for atmosphere, they have live music playing usually in the buskers spot, lots of families out and about, lots of "tasting" samples (you can almost get a whole meal if you time it right on your way round!) and a real buzz to the place; Saturday is good because the market closes at about 3pm so around lunchtime, lots of the stalls start to reduce their stock and you can get some real bargains. Anyway, Wednesday during the day, some of the market stalls aren't open, but I guess about 60% of them were, including my favourite cheese one, the car park was half empty (so I didn't have to do that "stalking" thing and follow someone back to their car for their space!) and even better, I found that by spending more than $10 at my favourite meat stall, I got a voucher for two hours free parking! I shall be going on a Wednesday again!!
Met up with OH (unable to take his citizenship test after all as the computers went down!) and we had a great lunch at Ace Bar, in the middle of the market. Voucher from the Entertainment Book meant we got two rump steaks with chips and salad for the total price of $15! Really nice steak too. Washed it down with a couple of nice glasses of the house wine specials, beats working any day!
Unfortunately for the rest of the afternoon, things went a little downhill. Needed to lodge the kids' aussie passport renewal applications at the Post Office. Having got all the paperwork together, filled out the forms online, printed them out, got the photos taken in a local chemist so they are exactly the right size, got them signed by a neighbour, realised we needed our parental signatures signed too so grabbed another neighbour doing his gardening to do that, I trundled off to the Hope Valley Post Office, only to be told I needed a "Corporate" Post Office such as the one at St Agnes or Tea Tree Plaza. Drove to St Agnes, queued for about ten minutes, got to the counter, only to be told by very unhelpful man that I should have made an appointment and I was too late to make one today! Apparently it takes them ten minutes to "check you've filled the form in properly" (D'oh, I have filled out forms before - and could read through and confirm I'd answered all the questions in about two minutes!) so that's another job that has to go back in the "To Do" list!
At least OH and I won't need any dinner tonight - kids are sorted with some $1 prime beef burgers from my favourite meat stall (think it's called "Feast") - the burgers are so thick and chunky that you can cut one in half through the middle to make two 'normal' sized ones! So much for Coles advert about feeding the famiy for under $10 - I could do four of us for less than $5 with these - and that would include the buns, and some salad too!
Firstly, I've not been to the market on a Wednesday before - we tend to go on either Friday night or Saturday: Friday night is good for atmosphere, they have live music playing usually in the buskers spot, lots of families out and about, lots of "tasting" samples (you can almost get a whole meal if you time it right on your way round!) and a real buzz to the place; Saturday is good because the market closes at about 3pm so around lunchtime, lots of the stalls start to reduce their stock and you can get some real bargains. Anyway, Wednesday during the day, some of the market stalls aren't open, but I guess about 60% of them were, including my favourite cheese one, the car park was half empty (so I didn't have to do that "stalking" thing and follow someone back to their car for their space!) and even better, I found that by spending more than $10 at my favourite meat stall, I got a voucher for two hours free parking! I shall be going on a Wednesday again!!
Met up with OH (unable to take his citizenship test after all as the computers went down!) and we had a great lunch at Ace Bar, in the middle of the market. Voucher from the Entertainment Book meant we got two rump steaks with chips and salad for the total price of $15! Really nice steak too. Washed it down with a couple of nice glasses of the house wine specials, beats working any day!
Unfortunately for the rest of the afternoon, things went a little downhill. Needed to lodge the kids' aussie passport renewal applications at the Post Office. Having got all the paperwork together, filled out the forms online, printed them out, got the photos taken in a local chemist so they are exactly the right size, got them signed by a neighbour, realised we needed our parental signatures signed too so grabbed another neighbour doing his gardening to do that, I trundled off to the Hope Valley Post Office, only to be told I needed a "Corporate" Post Office such as the one at St Agnes or Tea Tree Plaza. Drove to St Agnes, queued for about ten minutes, got to the counter, only to be told by very unhelpful man that I should have made an appointment and I was too late to make one today! Apparently it takes them ten minutes to "check you've filled the form in properly" (D'oh, I have filled out forms before - and could read through and confirm I'd answered all the questions in about two minutes!) so that's another job that has to go back in the "To Do" list!
At least OH and I won't need any dinner tonight - kids are sorted with some $1 prime beef burgers from my favourite meat stall (think it's called "Feast") - the burgers are so thick and chunky that you can cut one in half through the middle to make two 'normal' sized ones! So much for Coles advert about feeding the famiy for under $10 - I could do four of us for less than $5 with these - and that would include the buns, and some salad too!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
