Monday

I have been sucked back into the largely pointless and self serving occupation of online publishing. I like to call it this instead of "blogging" because it sounds far more intellectual, encouraging the reader to picture a "I'm sexy but smart because I wear glasses" kind of author rather than an overweight adolescent smearing Twisties seasoning all over the keyboard in their eagerness to play World of Warcraft.

Also, I have to return to my varied and far reaching audience (two people from Mauritania).

The usual symptoms of social malaise have infested national headlines since those expensive, airborne shards of glitter disappeared into the sky above the Harbour Bridge. A gushing body of water succeeded in wiping away a large part of Queensland and has now started work on Victoria. The PM has decided this is a unique opportunity for the people of Australia to pay for the effects of climate change. What has been a traumatic and terrifying ordeal for many continues to serve as a handy national narrative from which "true Australians" and "un-Australians" will emerge.

On the bus yesterday I sat three seats behind the beauty school drop out pumping the latest Ke$ha hit on her iPod and in front of the robust man scoffing a meat pie.

Then boarded two members of Sydney's finest sub culture. Young males from the wealthiest suburbs of the North Shore, they invariably sport Nautica polo shirts, Nike shorts, Adidas trainers... basically the entire alphabet of crappy sportswear never worn as casual street attire by any self respecting citizen. They enjoy adorning public transport with badly executed grafitti, especially employing witty catchesisms such as adlay eshay cuntsay etc etc.

After accusing a group of Asian teenagers of having bird flu (inexplicably squawking like chickens through swigs of VB) the lads disembarked the bus to go home and suck on their communal bong. I was reminded of coming arrivals on Sydney's streets over the next few days.

Lads are neither "hip", "jiggy" nor "down with it". But this song is