Tim Wheeler of Lane Cove says: “Adele Cowie’s ‘the ocean is on your right’ (C8) is the very advice I once gave to seven Scottish backpackers [I remember that nursery rhyme – Granny] using our home as a base. They had hired campervans for their Aussie gap year. I pointed them to the Pacific Highway and told them to head north. ‘Keep the ocean on your right till you get back here,’ I said. And they pretty much did, returning three months later.”
“It has been noted that the standard clock can mean little in the Cook Islands (C8) and in doing so, Kev Condell has opened up the whole question of what Pacific Island time actually means,” says Bob Phillips of Cabarita. “While working in the Pacific with islanders, I introduced this question and was assured that, if you lived among nature, you had no need for a watch or clock because the sun and moon, the tide movements and animal behaviour told you all you needed to know. Cocks crowing in the Cook Islands always woke me up, so no need for an alarm there. In Apia, Samoa, the police band marched to the middle of town to signal (loudly) that it was time for office workers to get to their jobs. Pacific island readers might help us out here by sharing some inside information.”
Shane Spence of Fairlight was wondering if they alternate buses on those Cook Islands bus routes that run clockwise and anti-clockwise “to avoid uneven tyre wear”.
“I noticed Star Trek’s William Shatner was ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘full of emotion’ following his space flight,” writes George Manojlovic of Mangerton. “I would have thought that at his age he’d be over the moon, not over the moon.” Bruce Hyland of Woy Woy wonders: “Do people returning from space flights have to go through Customs and Immigration, or does that only apply to landing on the moon?”
The thread of way-out street names (C8) doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. David Bertram of Hawks Nest says the recent submissions remind him “of Frankie Lane in Concord, and that of course leads to a trip down Memory Lane in my old suburb of Rozelle”.
“With Santa (C8) having newbies Vaxer and Anti-vaxxer to rein in, will this mean two of his trusty old deers will have to be euthanised?” asks Joy Cooksey of Harrington.
Column8@smh.com.au
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