So I’m at a show biz party (thanks Min!) and a woman I met on the dance floor asks what I do.
“I work in a museum”, I say.
“Oh, really? Cool. My dad has a museum. Do you know the Design Museum?”
It was that kind of party.

“TORONTO — It’s official: Politicians can break campaign promises with impunity.
An Ontario Superior Court judge has absolved Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty of breaking an elaborately signed contract promising not to raise or create new taxes, saying anyone who believes a campaign promise is naive about the democratic system.” Globe and Mail

“The heat was turned up on the Howard Government ahead of the official start to the Kyoto Protocol on Wednesday, with protests in London and political pressure at home.
Australia and the US are the only major industrialised countries to have resisted signing the protocol, which will limit greenhouse emissions and introduce an international carbon trading scheme.

[B[y not ratifying the treaty, Australia would miss out on any global economic opportunities that came with ratification, including carbon trading schemes worth $6 billion.

Mr Albanese said it concerned him that both the US, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and Australia, the largest emitter per capita, were the only two countries in the developed world not to have ratified the protocol, named after the Japanese city in which the initial climate change conference was held seven years ago. ” (n.c.a)

“The real reason the Prime Minister is allowing and encouraging the abortion debate is to send a message. The law won’t change, but after a long and costly parliamentary fight – which will monopolise media coverage for weeks and involve senior Liberals appearing on television agreeing with church leaders – morally conservative working-class Australians will know that, secretly, if only those rotten elites would let him, John Howard would love to move against abortion.” (Age)
It wouldn’t all be so painful if election stunts in the UK didn’t mean that it’s far more likely that I might have to move back to Australia before I wanted to. I don’t think I could cope with going back while Howard is still in power.
Otoh, I’ve been asked to speak on a panel at a museums conference in November. Woo!

“Young Australians planning a UK working holiday have been hit by the British Government’s pre-election immigration blitz.
Under changes made to the immigration system on Monday, Australians under 30 will be able to work full-time for only one year in the UK, not two.” (Age)