Sydney
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2007
1
148
195
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
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Sydney,
Australia
Friday, March 28, 2008
Sydney is a great town, though there is one aspect of life here that seems odd to the American visitor. Alcohol consumption in Australia is ubiquitous, enthusiastic and unapologetic. A local newspaper's Friday edition had a cover story on "Best Places to Get Hammered This Weekend." Given the strong strain of neo-Puritanism that is so evident in the U. S. and Europe these days, complete with zero-tolerance policies on drinking
and driving, seeing the in-your-face promotion of drinking here is startling. One gathers that Mothers Against Drunk Driving has not yet established a local chapter.
Ruminating on our Aussie host's obvious affection for the bottle, I remembered the first time Amy and I traveled to London together. We were staying in a charming historic hotel in central Mayfair that was not air-conditioned. . Our room looked out on a back alley. It was warm for London, and we had the windows at night open to cool the room. For about an hour, Amy and I lay awake listening to a couple of drunken Aussies in the alleyway singing, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. As far as we know from that evening's performance, the song has only one verse, endlessly repeated: "Skippy, Skippy, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo!"
