[Miscellany]

The news on the street is that Krispy Kreme donuts is finally coming to Melbourne. What has been happening up until now is that small corporations have been sending their staff on "business trips" to Sydney and these staff members happen to come back with about 5 dozen KK for the rest of the office. Clever, but I'm on to you. Of course schools can't afford to send anyone on a business trip anywhere (excursions to the zoo don't count) so I've never tried them but I ask how good can they really be? I refuse to believe that they are better than any other normal donut out there. Do they even sell the hot jam or cinnamon variety? These are, of course, the king and queen of all donuts - anything else is simply a "cake".

Anyway, the fact that KK is opening tomorrow has prompted everyone to start planning their orders (I have been invited to partake in several "Krispy runs" already). I'm curious as hell. The store is opening at Fountain Gate shopping centre. This is where Kath and Kim hang out, for those not in the know ...and that somehow seems quite appropriate.

Everyone who isn't talking about KC is talking about the Croatia/Australia match. Somehow like everything else this has renewed the "what is Australian?" debate. Half the Australian team are of Croatian descent - some of the Croatian team are Australian/Croatian - so who do you follow if you're Australian and you're Croatian too? (love the last line of that article btw, VERY Australian. heh). And why are we seeing so much vox pop about it?

It's interesting how these sorts of questions are always asked from a typically fair dinkum Australian to the core except when they were English/Irish (yep) point of view. So, I guess the question is But you were born here, so why don't you follow your country? I guess it's hard to know what it's really like in this situation when you only have one heritage. There is nothing to compare your Australianess to if you are millionth generation Australian and so the question can come across as patronising. Comparrison is important here.

I knew this person, once upon a time who was partially deaf. Being partially deaf affected every aspect of his life. It affected his mood and even how he interacted with his children and wife. When he wore a hearing aid and turned it all the way up the sounds he heard were both muffled and strange like as if he was swimming underwater. Yet, he knew how lucky he was to be able to hear even that. But despite the freedom that the hearing aid gave him, it also annoyed him. He knew himself to be a deaf man. He had spent much of his life before the hearing aid as a deaf man, interacting with other deaf people and living a life that he had fashioned and comes to terms with as a deaf person. And so, he was happy much of the time to leave the hearing aid out and be enveloped in a blanket of silence. He also loved the idea that he could put it in and become a "hearing person" as well - this suited him too. He was okay with being a dual personality but his family was not. They never understood why he wouldn't wear the hearing aid all the time and learn how to hear "properly" with it and interact "properly" with them. The problem was, they didn't know that "properly" meant something completely different to him than it did to them. What is properly in this situation anyway?

When you are a first generation Australian born from Euro parents you grow up with a typically fractured identity - you are always torn between who you are and what you feel you should be. You are constantly called apon to behave properly whether it be properly European or properly Australian. What is right anyway? What is proper? Loyalties are stretched because you are constantly flirting your way between home and outside life which are usually as different as you can get. Even something as straight forward as a school cut lunch turns into a debate about fitting in and questioning 'who am I?' When it comes to events such as soccer, which is a game not appreciated here in the same way as it is overseas, you might be caught in between identities in a different way than if you are following the Olympics, cricket or commgames. Sometimes you take the hearing aid out and sometimes you put it back in. You do it because you can. You do it because you are afforded the luxury and depravity of being both. Personally, I'm a socceroos girl all the way - but I wouldn't be opposed to a couple of other countries getting up there. You don't put all your eggs in one basket, that's all - that bet was never a safe one anyway.

Completely unrelated: a question that arose from a discussion I had about men and their need to be protective: Do you sleep with a baseball/cricket bat or some other protection under the bed? In speaking to L we came out with some weird stories about the men we know and the lengths they will go to in order to ensure that there is adequate protection under the bed. I, for one have no protection. Maybe I should get some, but to be honest I proved many years ago how useless I am with a softball bat (swinging must be an art I think) - I wouldn't know how to use it anyway. I'm looking around the room at the moment and wondering whether a spray of perfume followed by a smack to the head with the lamp will buy me some time if I were ambushed by some freako.

Lastly, to the person who found my journal by typing in "advice about marital affairs" - it's your lucky day. How about this for advice? Don't shit where you eat. :)

posted by M at 12:03 am 28 comments