What a Beautiful World

I haven’t seen a single news bulletin or read a newspaper in a week. I’ve only turned on the TV once. I’ve hardly even been out of the house. For all I know, World War VI could have broken out — we’re up to number six, aren’t we? Or an alien virus could have decimated the population.

Or John Howard could have finally dropped the veil, so to speak, and openly started rounding up the Muslims and everyone else who can’t play cricket and shipping them to Nauru.

And you know what? I simply couldn’t care less.

Because in the quiet of this first “work” day after New Year’s Day, while the rest of the city is still sleeping off a long weekend binge, it’s gently raining.

The beautiful sound of raindrops on the garden is punctuated only by the occasional squawk of a lorikeet making a quick dash back to its tree. In the soft, grey light, the freshly rain-washed flowers and leaves of the garden glisten.

It’s a special quiet moment of solitude before the world really starts its new year. And it’s very, very beautiful.

Happy New Year.

Melbourne: vision of the apocalypse?

My Melbourne friend Richard (one of the several Richards I know there) sends this photo of Melbourne’s smoke-filled sky today as residents face the massive bushfires.

Melbourne's smoky sky

He writes:

So far around 400,000 hectares have been burned.

Although the fires are burning in an area between 150 and 200km north-east of the city, they’re casting a smoky haze over Melbourne. You can smell it, even indoors, and despite the pollution in the CBD.

It’s like God’s fired up his pot-belly stove.

The Age is collecting further smog photos too.

I should be Spenglerian, apparently

Now that I’ve upgraded to Firefox 2.0, I get spell-checking inside website forms — a bonus! But the spell-checker has trouble with “Stilgherrian” (oddly enough).

Its suggestions are “Spenglerian” (after the German pre-Nazi historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler, “Utilitarianism” (the ethical theory), “Cherianne’s” (whoever Cherianne is!), “Algerian’s” (well, I know what Algerians are, but why has it chosen the possessive form?) or “Utilitarians”. Not the best set of alternatives…