News Values

Although the big news of the day was the Victorian election, the headline which caught my attention today was the banner headline of the “NT News”: “Woman falls out of paddy wagon”. Isn’t it a story you just WANT to read. Don’t you just know it’s going to be a great yarn? Or could it be quite lame? I don’t know because I never got around to reading today’s “NT News”. Not even as I enjoyed a late breakfast in Darwin ahead of my flight back to Sydney.

The only other things I managed to fit in this morning was a swim in the pool (since the sun covered the pool it was actually quite chilly), a walk around the rememberance shrine for the bombing of Darwin between 1942 and 1945, and buying some new thongs. Yes, my old thongs have been getting a little thin, and so I figured if I was going to buy some new thongs, Darwin was probably the place to do it. And let me tell you, there was lots of choice, and the shop assistants were extremely knowledgeable about what was on offer. In the end, I settled on a simple pair of Havaianas, even though the Lightning Bolts were on sale at two for thirty dollars.

I went to the airport a little earlier than I’d planned, simply because of the air conditioning on offer. Darwin today was pretty bloody humid. Thankfully the plane was pretty empty. That still didn’t stop me finding myself behind the type of aircraft traveller I hate most.

“Excuse me. Excuse me. Can you please not lean back so far. Can you straighten your seat”, I said to the man in front of me on the aircraft. Although he gave me a “fuck off” look, and said nothing, he respected my wishes. You just know when you’re going to get one of “those” passengers in front of you. As a general rule, I’ve noticed they come in with lots of bags, they tend to walk down the aisle taking up lots of room, and almost instantly, as soon as they sit down, they immediately put their seat into recline. The fact that this bloke looked like “Comic Book Guy” from “The Simpsons” adds a little to the image I’m hoping to describe of the flight back from Darwin to Sydney. For years I would sit and suffer with these selfish people who, without turning around to look if you’ve got a computer or a meal or something on the tray table, they click the button, and suddenly the aircraft seat is their chez lounge. Having suffered for years , I now challenge people. The nice ones – like myself – who look around and check, and ask “do you mind if I recline the seat” are fine. It’s those bastards who don’t look and, frankly, don’t care that shit me.

Anyway, having chastened him, I enjoyed the flight back to Sydney. And tonight’s just been an evening of election watching. Like the cricket, however, I went with silent visuals from the television and radio commentary from the ABC.