Rambling in the Outback.

Pat is an avid fan of Wimbledon and watches it solidly on Sky Sport throughout the fortnight. I find it more exciting than most sport - every moment counts - and was delighted that the weasel-faced Hewitt was knocked out yesterday by Roddick, thereby eliminating the potential humiliation of his defeating Murray. The Australian seems to suffer from the Ali-G illusion that he’s an albino hip-hop artist. Or maybe his back-to-front baseball cap is a tribute to the Roman legionary’s helmet, protecting his neck not from barbarian swords but from a ball ricocheting off the back wall of the court. But there is of course another side to Australia than that presented by the æsthetically challenged and racially confused Hewitt and his rowdy and inebriated supporters. The Australia of Peter Carey, the Sydney Opera House and Dame Joan Sutherland¹. An email from James on Sunday reminded me of this. Back in April, he and Gabrielle contributed an innovative collaborative event to their local Arts Festival (Click here to read a review) Judging from the review, it’s difficult to imagine something as exciting being put on in the UK outside London. Nevertheless, they’re being spoilsports in refusing to conform to the national stereotype. My own visit to Oz taught me that in reality most Australians are courteous and friendly, moderate drinkers - the men drink half-pints for God’s sake, in England the preserve of straight women and gay men- and rather conformist: when my plane came in to land at Melbourne everybody stayed in their seats and kept their mobiles switched off. In Italy, by contrast, having applauded the pilot for landing safely, the passengers leap to their feet, ignoring the cabin crew’s requests to sit down, and start opening the overhead lockers and yelling into their phones. But stereotyping foreigners and colonials is enormously comforting to the British - it’s the only thing we have to comfort ourselves for our loss of Empire and general insignificance in the modern world. So: Good on yer, Mate, and have a few tinnies on me.

¹. The Baz Luhrmann 1993 production of La Bohème with the Australian National Opera is the most convincing and moving I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t feature Dame Joan - lovely voice but far too hefty for Mimi. Click here to buy a copy of the DVD.