Wondering at the state of Australian retail

The above picture notwithstanding, the whole Australian retail sector, from farm to fridge, sucks big time. As I recently said.

I dare you to look at the above picture of Mrs Speech and Big W's grand discount and not laugh, snort, guffaw or chortle. Okay, you can chortle a little.


An Australian-USA Thanksgiving, with some New Zealand thrown in, too

Mrs Speech and I know a lovely lady from Colorado. There's another woman who goes to church with them, who is from Indiana.

They got together and nefariously planned a pro-USA demonstration Thanksgiving celebration for Australian family members and friends. And a little bit for them too I guess.

There was also a very nice, elderly New Zealand couple.

I brought along some HD NFL to watch (Packers! Lions! Friday night football!) and we had turkey, mash, sweet potato, glazed carrots, green bean casserole, olives, boiled eggs, fresh bread, and other stuff.

We had soft drink too. Mrs Speech didn't have much of that because I kept stealing hers.

It was topped off by pumpkin pie, which is something that totally needs to catch on over here in Australia. Pumpkin pie is awesome, especially with whipped cream.

Afterward we sung some songs related to the states of Indiana, Michigan and Colorado, and watched some Youtube clips of Americana-type songs. Everyone had a good time and was satisfied.


Baking ourselves in a mid-morning Australian summer

A few weeks back I bought a new basketball from Rebel Sport. We had been walking a bit, again and we had passed the basketball courts at the high school a couple times.

They're absolutely beautiful. They had been resurfaced in the late nineties but wear and tear did them in a bit. That and the roots from the monster tree next to the court, which pushed up the far court like localised seismic activity; little rift valleys which meant you couldn't even dribble.

But they done been resurfaced and new hoops and backboards. So I dragged Mrs Speech over there Sunday mid-morning. Big mistake. We were there maybe twenty minutes before the heat got us. It was like being in an oven. The heat bounced off the court and sizzled us. We had no SPF or hats on. We had a bit of a walk home and took some pics of a babbling brook (DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!) and the turkey which scratches around the place.

He's built up a massive cratered nest thing. Mrs Speech wants to fatten him up so we can, y'know, Christmas...


Pricing the gobble-gobbles

Speaking of which, we were at the mall yesterday mailing off Jesse Tree Ornaments. We stopped at the supermarket yesterday and had a squiz at turkeys for Christmas.

If you're American, you have to know this one thing: we don't eat much turkey here. We have it at Christmas, wherein they might sell a few million, but outside that, not really. In fact, turkey is so synonymous with Christmas, that it would feel weird to eat it outside of Christmas day, unless you're having a turkey sandwich. But at $32.99/kg sliced that's pretty steep for most people.

Put in perspective, you Americans probably eat more turkey on one thanksgiving than we would in fifty years total.

Anyway, so we found a #34 turkey at the supermarket. That's 3.4kg/7½ pounds. It was thirty bucks. Down to twenty, it was.

My guess is closer to Christmas it will come down, and we might get something that size for ten to fifteen. That would be nice.