I have just spent the morning reading the paper. I have to say it was the first time in a long time that it has not left me feeling very depressed. And with some yummy fair trade coffee from Latin America and pancakes it was an hour well spent.

I was a little unsure yesterday but today I am feeling very sure that Kevin and Julia are going to be good, in fact I reckon I can say awesome. I am going to write him a letter saying congratulations on his win and remind him that he must take a stand against global poverty. I urge everyone to do the same. I was also very excited to see that Hillary Clinton is almost definitely going to run for president of the US and that Hugo Chavez was reelected as the president of Venezuala. I am excited by the prospect of living in a world with Hilary the President of the US, Kevin the Primeminister of Australia and Hugo Chavez the leader of socialist revolution in Latin America. My count shows that Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba all have very socialist leaders and Chile, Argentina and Brazil have almost socialist leaders so it is looking good for some big changes to take place there. It could all go bad but it could also go really well and I chose to be hopeful.

I was however very disappointed that the article that was written on Julia Gillard spent the first five paragraphs talking about her hair and her boyfriend. In fact he got quoted before she did. Why is that whenever a woman gets a high profile position in governement we all have to hear about her hair or shoes or partner before we hear about her policies and what she has to offer. It makes me angry. I think we have become complacent in the face of sexism. Women have made many gains and I don’t want to take away from that. The fact that we have a woman deputy is great but if we still want to read about her hair before profile what does that say? People say that sexism doesn’t exist but I think that this speaks for itself:

“Julia Gillard, one of Labor’s arch headkickers has emerged as deputy leader groomed for the office by her partner, a former hairdresser Tim Mathieson. Until recently Ms Gillard appeared to be less fussy about her hallmark crop of red hair. Yesterday she made her first appearnce as deputy with Mr Mathison at her side sporting a slick hairdo. It was thanks to Mr Mathieson, her boyfriend of six months, who has shaped her hair for the big occasion recently. She had a little French flick last week, but this is more of a sophisticated coif. Mr Mathieson, who has a daughter from a previous marriage and does not live with Ms Gillard, prposed the more styled look…

Looks like Kevin Rudd is the new leader of the Labor Party. I think that I am pleased. I don’t know all that much but to be honest Kim Beazley never really impressed me. In on almost everything that I believe in (except maybe the IR laws and global warming) he had the same attitude as John Howard. I am not sure that, that will change as the Herald said yesterday it was really a choice between “right and righter” but he does seem like a genuinely good man and some what interested in social justice and many people that I respect think so too so here’s hoping.

It would be soooooo good if Labor won the next election. I am very tired of John and would really like a leader that I respected. A leader who I trusted so even if s/he made a decision I didn’t necessarily agree with I could feel okay about that as I believed that they were capable and really trying to work for the best interests of the majority of Australians including the poor not just the rich. And most of all I would really like a leader who I felt actually listened to the people. Again I don’t know if Kevin Rudd is that person but I think there is more chance of it than Kim Beazley. However you have to feel sorry for him. He has been the leader for so many years but never been the prime minister and on the same day who loses the leadership his brother dies. That has to suck.

So anyway go Kevin and go Julia. And go Labor. I do hope that under this leadership they will get the party together to win teh next election.

We are going walking in the Blue Mountains this weekend. I am not entirely sure the plans but basically we will be driving to the Blue Mountains tonight and then tomorrow we will be walking and then camping and then walking again. I believe there will be rivers to cross and scroggin to eat and some good views but hopefully not fires.

Anyway it appears that we are down a tent so Tom if you read this before you get my phone message could we please borrow your tent?

They are doing renovations at work so that has meant for me lots of noise with concrete cutters and hammers and other renovation tools that make lots of noise. It is a little anoying but it will be good once it is done. It also means that we don’t have a kitchen right now so the table and fridge and watever else have all been set up in the space right outside my office.

This has been good in that I have gotton to know some of the really lovely and kind people who give up their time to work in the shops but unfortunatlely today it has proved to be quite distressing. It seems that a small group of our volunteers are complete racists. Today I heard about the “stupid people who don’t speak English” and “the mean, nasty muslims who are the cause of the world’s problems” not to mention “the dole bludgers who take advantage of the society” and questions about how we are going to ensure that poeple don’t get more than one hamper. It made me so angy. I just can’t believe that attitude and especially not here where the motto we follow is “be kind and love for love is your first gift to the poor”. Here where we are told “do not blame the poor”. And here where it is Jesus Christ that we follow.

Of course by the time I had formulated a response in my head and had calmed myself down enough not to be nasty as well the conversation had finished and I had lost my opportunity to say something. Not that I would probably have the guts to anyway but these kind of attitudes upset me so and I feel I must say say something beacuse it is probably not nastiness that leads to these kind of attitudes but ignorance.

I am feeling so overwhelmed by work right now and so inadequate. Really not a very nice feeling.

God, please help me to be better.

I have enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs so much today that I thought I better write something. Tom’s blog about U2 was so descriptive, while I was reading I relived the moment and it was great. Steve’s post about U2 was also so cool. Great to hear what was going on for others and there is no way you could beat Chris’s photo of Bono. That was awesome. Apart from U2 though Lesley’s post left me thinking and I was so excited to hear that David will soon be arriving in Nagaland. Also Happy Birthday Sam. Blogs work better than those Birthday reminders. We will do everything we can to be there on Saturday night. Not to mention I have seen Howie and Jenny’s wedding photos and caught up on much of Australian politics without having to read the newspaper.

So keep blogging people I am enjoying every moment of it.

Well I said that I would be at least 500m from U2 but it turns out that it was more like 2 metres (I think but I am really bad at estimating distnce). It was awesome, absolutely unbelieveable, incredible and so, so fun. They do rock. I bought U2 on U2 yesterday so if anyone wants to come around and read it, it will be on our coffee table.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good too. With a big sleep in and pancakes on Saturday morning I was off to a good start. It was particularly good when I I looked at the clock and saw 11.45. My initail reaction was oh no I have to study but then I realised that I didn’t. Yay for finishing uni for the year. In the afternoon Libby, Ryan and I went to Coogee. We went on the bus which made it more fun. I like catching new buses. After a swim and some reading on the beach mum and Keityh came adn we walked around to Tamarama to look at Sculptures by the Sea. We didn’t run into Jenny and Robert but it was still cool. It was my forst time so I was kind of blown away. Unfortunately getting home was not so fun. I won’t go into details but it took about two hours. I was not happy at all but Ran and Libby were. I am going to try to be more like that. We did finally make it to Helen’s drink which were nice. Always good to catch up with the Belrose crew and Happy Birthday Helen.

Sunday, after a bit of a crappy start where Martin and I went out to Silverwater jail to visit our friend we discovered they had moved him. No notice. no phone call to tell us that ou appointment had been cancelled. I can’t believe how inhumane that system is. We came back to Newtown and took a cruise done King Street. The Newtown festival was on so we listened to some music and looked in book shops. We ended up at Broadway so we visited Jem at the Oxfam shop which is so the coolest shop and it has so many Peruvian things in it which are lovely.

In the evening we went to Rough Edges. Another calm (in a Rough Edges kind of way) night and we also had Laksa at S Thada which was yummy. I had forgotton how good they were and so cheap.

Tonight I am going to be within at least 500m of U2. Praise the Lord. They are going to rock.

I really wish that I wasn’t at work. I am so excited and time is going so slowly…..