*swat*

Most of the people I know have a stand way of greeting others.

My husband says "hi dee hi" and my son says "what's going on?". I have a pommie mate that always says "alright?". Others say "G'day" or "hello" or how's it going?". There's "how y'going" and "what's up" and "morning". I have an elderly acquaintance that greets everyone with "who's this here, then?" and my best friend always just says the person's name.

That is, for most of the year.

In about mid November it all changes. Everyone suddenly has two distinct greeting. There is there usual, run-of-the-mill salutation for inside meetings and the standard November/December greeting for outside.

"The (sometimes insert expletive) flies are friendly."

It is invariably accompanied by the great Aussie salute.

Where the hell are the dung beetles?

out with the old

So, we have a new government. And a brand new Prime Minister.

The party made lots (and lots and lots) of pre-election promises. They are going to spend vast amounts of money on lots of very popular things (none of which will directly affect us). There are to be tax cuts (which are nice but not really necessary for our income bracket). He's going to water down Workchoices and get rid of AWAs (which, again, doesn't touch us) and do other nice things job wise. The troops are being brought home from Iraq (no timetable of when or whether this includes our field hospital and engineers) but increased in Afghanistan (which will effect us). There are lots of positive plans about "the environment" but, as Peter (I can't sing or dance) Garrett will be in charge, the whole idea is pretty scary (does that man ever think or bother to do research before he opens his mouth?).

Fiscal policy will stay pretty much the same as it has been because Mr Rudd played the me-too game. Interest rates will rise because they are doing that world wide. Petrol will still be expensive. House prices will remain ridiculous. Pensioners will (again) only get a token rise.

Like the whole bloody campaign, the outcome is all very ho-hum *yawn*

What wasn't boring about the weekend was our visitors.

My gorgeous son, and his significant other (when the hell will he marry that girl?!) came down to help us celebrate the patriarch's birthday.They brought prezzies, which is always nice, but they most importantly, brought themselves.

They arrived late afternoon on Saturday. After much hugs, the cab-sav was opened and we sat and nattered while dinner cooked. A quick glance at the telly gave M a pleasant birthday gift of the party he supported getting voted in but election conversation was vetoed as we had all voted for different parties and that debate is one that is never going to be won.

We stayed up late and caught up on all the news and gossip. It was wonderful.

Sunday was a lazy day. S did a bit of marking at our dining room table but, mostly, we all just slothed. My son introduced me to the joys of Facebook (and signed me up!) and showed me a few other sites that are accessible now that we are on broadband. A pleasant lazy day.

I guess poor Johnnie Howard had a pretty shitty weekend. But I didn't.