Mozzeenet

Decided to join in the protest march this morning against the Government’s new workplace changes. I felt it was an important issue to stand up for. There was an article in The Australian on the weekend which said the OECD have recently suggested there’s limited evidence that weakening the employment protection laws benefits the economy. Previously they had said the opposite and apparently the changes made by the Howard Government were based on their previous analysis.

On top of this I think individual workers in small organisations, casual employment and certain sectors will suffer. In fact it has already been shown that employers are making changes which disadvantage workers. This must surely undermine stability and cause more stress in our society with negative ramifications.

A few of us from work started the march in Spring St near Parliament along with hordes of country and metropolitan firefighters, Health Services union protestors, the Greens, the ALP, the public service union and others. We were waiting there for at least 30 mins then Steve Bracks and Kim Beasley appeared. They walked straight past me! After they lead our group off, we all marched down to the Bourke St mall. Others converged there from different parts of the city. The firefighters had handed out posters so I was carrying one of theirs.

There were speeches from a number of people including Beasley and Bracks, union leaders, the Uniting church and John Woods. The people near us were pretty vocal, one guy yelling out some fairly amusing “compliments” of John Howard.

The march started at 10am and we headed back to work at about 11.30am. I’m really glad I took part.

Here’s an interesting overview of public opinion about the new WorkChoices changes (PDF) from the Victorian/ Tasmanian arm of the Australian Institute of Management.

Had another driving lesson tonight and I think I have mastered the clutch in Andrews’s car! Yay! It feels like a major hurdle has been cleared. Learnt some more about reversing and also starting on a hill. Andrew had to help out with the handbrake at an intersection after the car started rolling quickly back as I attempted to go forward!

It was weird not to have to study this weekend - handed in the final essay for the semester on Thursday and now have a break from uni until early August. That’s a good feeling.

Had a good weekend with a few interesting outings. Ventured into Fitzroy on Friday night - have only been there once shopping and have been wanting to check out its night life. It’s very Newtown-ish and funky. Had a great meal of contemporary Vietnamese cuisine at Red Rice including flaming beef rice paper rolls, betel-leaf beef parcels, fish cakes and their special red rice to accompany. Good service and yummy food so we were suitably impressed.

Had a drink beforehand in The Perserverance Hotel and a hot chocolate after at San Churro, a Spanish chocalateria. Very interesting wandering Brunswick street too - lots of great Melbourne-type bars with comfy couches and dim lighting. That’s a great thing about this city.

On Saturday, we popped into a photo exhibition at Albert Park, organised by a returned volunteer who had been in the Maldives and wanted to raise money for rebuilding after the 2004 Tsunami. The photos were great and there was also a farmer’s market on at the complex (Gasworks Art Park) so that was all interesting.

This morning we had galettes at Fraus, the pancake place we have been to a few times now. Andrew then went to see a work colleague in hospital who had a stroke last week and I had a look around Victoria Market while he was doing that.

I had another poor attempt at learning to drive the manual car this afternoon. I’m finding it difficult and need to have more lessons and probably practice intensively rather than just now and then. It’s frustrating but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually.

Long weekend for the Queen’s birthday - just missed out on birthday honours so decided to go to Bendigo for the day instead. A very historical place, centre of the old goldfields area, but doesn’t do much for itself by being very cold. With the old, grey buildings frowning down at me and very few people silly enough to be wandering around like us, I was wondering if it was such a great idea.

However things picked up after visiting the information centre and filling the stomach with a nice warm cup of tea and a Thai-style pumpkin soup. We had decided to go on a walking tour of the city centre which turned out to be fun even though we had to keep moving to stay warm.

We first had a look at some Chinese monuments, an ornate gateway and bridge near the Golden Dragon museum. Bendigo has a strong link with China as a lot of people from China settled there during the gold rush in the 1800s.

We did a quick walk around an old wooden church and then meandered up past the now-defunct Bendigo gaol which incidentally is sandwiched between the primary and secondary school and flanked by the bowling club (which was buzzing today incidentally). Hmmmm…

Took a left turn past one of the oldest buildings in Bendigo, the old Police Barracks which is a lovely sandstone building then through Rosalind Park up Camp Hill to a metal tower which we climbed to get a good view of the city.

By then we needed a coffee for warmth so we stopped at the art gallery down the hill. We decided to also have something else to eat - needed the energy, you know - I had scones with cream and jam and Andrew had a slice of orange cake. There was a lovely water feature outside the cafe - classical statues stood behind the glass beside it, creating wonderful reflections in the water.

Our final stop was a nearby hill where there were about four different churches - it was obviously ‘the’ place to get down and spiritual. Most impressive was the Catholic cathedral - it is huge with marble floors inside and spires, stained glass windows, gargoyles and wooden carvings of angels on the ceiling. It’s hard to imagine how they could ever fill it even in its hey day.

Unfortunately now the long weekend is almost over. It’s always the way. We’re going to make it last a bit longer though by watching the Australia v Japan World Cup match tonight and going to bed a little later than usual on a school night.