The Cairns Diaries

National Ride Your Bike To Work Day - I did it - and nearly got taken out by cars twice.

Even bike riders in Cairns are weird. They ride down the wrong side of the road and as your bike approaches theirs they want to move to your left on the bike lane so that to avoid a collision with them you have to swerve into traffic that you can't see coming from behind you.

insane. I swear at them and tell them to stay left. It helps to have long hair and be big and ugly. Canberra riders were much more cluey. But Cairns pedestrians seem more bike aware than canberrans. Probably because their bike riders are insane.

0 Replies

Drove to work with the top down this morning at around 6am - I love the tropics.

0 Replies

hingehead wrote:

Drove to work with the top down this morning at around 6am - I love the tropics.

Gloater!

0 Replies

Friend (girl) from Townsville complaines about how Cairns has all the good shopping yet Townsville is a bigger city.

0 Replies

It's true, though they're not much bigger. We have couple of Townsville-based staffers who come up once a semester for a couple of days - they always make sure they're here on a Thursday night (late night shopping).

I've also heard it's almost impossible to get a decent restaurant meal on a Sunday in Townsville. In Cairns their would have to be a choice of 80 just in the CBD.

Townsville looks down on Cairns as touristy fluff. Cairns looks down on Townsville as full rocks, rednecks and dry dusty weather.

There's an ad on TV about a credit union offering home loans - and the lady doing the ad says 'I'll even lend money to those poor people from Townsville so they can get away from all those rocks'.

0 Replies

hingehead wrote:

It's true, though they're not much bigger. We have couple of Townsville-based staffers who come up once a semester for a couple of days - they always make sure they're here on a Thursday night (late night shopping).

I've also heard it's almost impossible to get a decent restaurant meal on a Sunday in Townsville. In Cairns their would have to be a choice of 80 just in the CBD.

Townsville looks down on Cairns as touristy fluff. Cairns looks down on Townsville as full rocks, rednecks and dry dusty weather.

There's an ad on TV about a credit union offering home loans - and the lady doing the ad says 'I'll even lend money to those poor people from Townsville so they can get away from all those rocks'.

0 Replies

I've been meaning to ask you, hinge: did you "go troppo" when you first moved to Cairns? If so, are you willing to divulge the details here? :wink:

0 Replies

I've never really understood what 'going troppo' means. But if you're talking about the temporary madness they say affects some in Darwin in the wet season, then no, I've been lucky. Cairns isn't as ugly (climatically) as Darwin. Apparently in the winter we've just come out of it dropped down to 24C one night and all the shops sold out of jumpers.

It's been 2.5 years now, I'm somewhat acclimatised - the humidity isn't bugging me as much any more (Larry was the pits - no power and all that rain). I was recently and Canberra and it was cold, but not unbearable so I'd so say, acclimitisation wise, I'm built for Sydney right now.

0 Replies

hingehead wrote:

I've never really understood what 'going troppo' means.

It's the temporary (one hopes!) unhingement (sorry, couldn't help myself! :wink: ) that overcomes outsiders (southerners, especially) when they venture north of the Tropic of Capricorn. They become a bit nutsy as they make the adjustment. Apparently a very common experience!

0 Replies

I guess that makes me either very stable or already nutsy.

I think Canberra to Cairns was easier than a Sydney to Cairns (or Sydney to Townsville). Canberra's just a big country town with nice restaurants and a decent racial mix. The biggest diff is probably that Canberra has by far the highest percentage of degree holders in the country, something like 54% of the TOTAL population (includes newborns). So it's acceptable to be a smartarse and flaunt yer lurnin. In Cairns it's not always appropriate.

0 Replies

I guess that it makes you quite stable, hinge. A good thing! Smile

I confess to going a wee bit troppo at the time. A friend of mine went troppo big time! I won't go into the details here.

I think you should find (or create!) a way to feel comfortable with your "lurnin". Cairns will be the better for it & you will be more in your element! :wink:

0 Replies

msolga wrote:

I confess to going a wee bit troppo at the time. A friend of mine went troppo big time! I won't go into the details here.

Dang! If it was in Cairns I won't consider it off topic.

0 Replies

So hows Junie these days Jim?

0 Replies

hingehead wrote:

msolga wrote:

I confess to going a wee bit troppo at the time. A friend of mine went troppo big time! I won't go into the details here.

Dang! If it was in Cairns I won't consider it off topic.

It was in Cairns, but I would hate to embarrass her by revealing all online, hinge.

Let's just say she was rescued by the God Squad during a very wobbly, troppo moment! And spent a little time recuperating quietly after that .... She was just fine when she eventually returned "down south"! I put it down to the place being so damn soggy. Saps the energy & does something unusual the brain. :wink:

0 Replies

Python makes a meal out of cat

Meet the SNAKE that got the cream ... or the cat in this case.

Redlynch resident January Clay got the shock of her life when she saw her fully-grown cat disappearing down the throat of the 3m python.

She had let the cat outside about 5.30am on Wednesday morning and when she went to check on it 30 minutes later made the gruesome discovery.

"When I came out of the house the cat's legs were hanging out of its mouth," she told The Cairns Post yesterday.

http://www.cairnspost.com.au/images/uploadedfiles/editorial/pictures/2007/11/08/snake.jpg

0 Replies

On the front page of the Cairns Post last week the main story was about Woolies tracking down it´s shopping trollies.....

0 Replies

hingehead wrote:

On the front page of the Cairns Post last week the main story was about Woolies tracking down it´s shopping trollies.....

Are you saying this isn't a vitally important Cairns issue, then, hinge? :wink:

0 Replies

it's probably a slow news year.

0 Replies

Must be the mushroom factor.

:wink:

0 Replies

It's fun being in a 2nd tier electorate: Leichardt.

Warren Entsch (Lib) is our retiring member. He's nominated one of his staffers to replace him: Charlie McKillop, she (rumour alert) has spent a lot of time up the cape and likes her booze.

The Nationals offer Ian Crossland, who sounds like a tw*t (been here three generations and I'll sort those Canberra buggers out)

ALP has Jim Turnour who usually has a silly grin and a Kevin Rudd poster.

Leichardt is usually a labour seat historically, and a 4% swing is needed for them to get it back.

http://www.charliemckillop.com.au/

http://www.qld.nationals.org.au/images/fedcandidates/iancrossland.jpg

http://www.iancrossland.com.au/

http://www.jimturnour.com.au/

0 Replies

The Cairns Diaries

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know