Irony, your name is Australia

I read this in a Canadian newspaper just this moment:

Aussies plan prison ship

CAIRNS - Australia plans to use an armed prison ship to hold illegal fishermen and "boat people" in a move that critics say smacks of the county's convict origins.

Under the plan, naval and customs patrol boats will no longer have to return to port to deposit asylum seekers and poachers detained at sea.

Terry O'Gorman, the president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, called it "an immigration prision ship". He said: "It's a delicious historical irony that Australia was founded on convicts who were moved from prison bulks in the Thames. Now we are repeating history".

The vessel, which could be operating by January, would carry up to 30 armed customs officers and two deck-mounted machineguns. It would be able to hold up to 30 detainees for up to a month.

I had a large rant originally planned for this but in the end I thought "why bother". There is no point in trying as Australia already has a tarnished image from people overseas in regards to what we do with "boat people" and illegal immigrants. I just hope the rest of the world doesn't think all Australians agree with it.

Celebration of Light

Well the HSBC Celebration of Light just concluded. 4 days over two weeks of great fireworks. You can see the pics on Shan’s flickr account (they probably aren’t up yet, will remove this bracket when done). I really liked Italy’s and Czech Republic’s fireworks (although the Czech was a little dispointing for its closing number). Mexico was average but had a nice finale, which was good enough to win it the festival. We then watched the compilation show with all countries collaborating. Really glad we managed to be in Vancouver for it.

Thurn and Taxis @ Drexoll

On friday we went down to Drexoll Games and played Thurn and Taxis. I found it to be a very enjoyable game. We had the rules explained to us and alot of it was very similar to Ticket to Ride (no surprises since it was the same creator). This helped alot as I could look at the board and know what the best stratergy would be to use in the first few turns. After 2 hours (including rules explanation) we had a winner: me :) So already I liked it. However I could say it was a really easy game, flows very well, with minimal chances for others to screw you over (plenty of chances to screw yourself if your not paying attention ... twice). Shan's only compaint was there wasn't enough bile. A great game, easy to see why it was voted best game and would be a great addition to any gaming club.

We then played a game of El Grande (plenty of Bile there). I was winning until Frida pulled out this ridiculous move (well it was completely legit but I say ridiculous) and shot ahead of everyone (and stayed there for good) making it more of a race for 2nd place. In the end I think I came third but it was a real fun game of El Grande. It took us around 3 1/2 hours and then it was time to go home.

We then went home and watch Cinderella Man, as we hadn't seen it yet. It was ok but the ending was predictable. If pushed I might be able to give it 3 stars, maybe 3.5 for the photography and production value.

Crash and Ball

I decided to go to the park today for lunch. The weather outside was a delightful temperature, Sun not too warm and pleasant breeze flowed lightly to be cool but not "grab your jumpers, its gonna be freezing". I walked to the curb and waited for the passing cars to travel by. One person decided to slow down and let me cross, which was very nice of them. Canadians are quite polite I must say, and Vancouver (can't say much about the rest of the cities) is very pedestrian friendly, so this while a typical occurrence, is still a nice surprise. However, the people traveling behind them did not obviously see them slowing down and ran right into the back of them. I just stood there dumbfounded that this had happened (in Sydney its a give, usually involving a taxi). Thankfully no one was hurt, but when the offending party got out of the car they were complaining bitterly and sure enough, were American. I gave my details as a witness (and partly because I felt in some way I was the cause of this accident) also because it was very obvious what had happened.

Tonight is drop-in Indoor Soccer again. I started playing last week, Shan and I went to Coal Harbour Community Centre and the group that play are quite nice. Its good to be playing Soccer again and its different to be playing Indoor after 9 years, I'm surprised I don't suck. Although I get quite puffed at the moment, but that's to be expected, give me a few weeks and I'll be fighting fit and taking numbers. Both Shan and I have executed some lovely goals already that are good enough to write home about ... In fact I'll do that right now :)