Things I love about Canberrans!

Loves:

The birds…parrots, choughs, wedgies, maggies…

The wildlife…roos, echidnas, wombats…

The sun on the Brindabella’s in the afternoon from the Parkway at anytime of the year.

That wherever you go you seem to know someone there.

That we think it’s our god-given right to arrive 5 minutes before any major event and get a parking spot at the front door.

Hates:

That we lose the ability to reverse park.

Chief Minister talk back on 666. I mean really, where in the country would the Chief Minister/Premier take calls from fruit bats about the length of grass on their verge?

The lack of small interesting shops. Enough McMall shops please!

That wherever you go you seem to know someone there.

A while back I witnessed a not so pleasant exchange between a passenger and bus driver.

Standing in the aisle at the front, said passenger rang the bell over Comm Ave Bridge city bound. Unfortunately it didn’t allow the driver to move from second left lane to left lane to let him off over the bridge (back then there was a temp stop at Floriade).

Passenger gave driver a mouth full when the driver couldn’t reach the stop – forgot to mention it was peak hour and left lane was full of traffic. After copping a mouth full, the driver told the passenger how to go about making a complaint. “Oh I will.” followed by “It’s not a difficult job and you can’t even do it well”, from the passenger.

With that passenger made two points;

1. He didn’t like missing his stop, and
2. He was a pratt!

That said, outstanding to see some positives on the site!

For mine, the distinct change of seasons in Canberra has always been tops (though perhaps a little blurry of late).

I thank bus drivers too, but when you think about it we’re just thanking them for doing their job.

I even thank the ones that drive like lunatics playing the “how far can I go before all this sudden braking/accelerating makes someone sick” game, the ones that have the heating on when it’s 25 degrees outside, and the ones that dont turn the aircon on when it’s 30 degrees outside.

I really love the guys that wave me on without me having to punch my travel 10.

Weird or what???

I love Canberra because of RiotACT. Without it, I would hate it~!

we don’t have an international airport .

We do now.

Love:

Rugging up in winter, especially when I get to glimpse snow on the Brindabellas.

Waking up to the sound of birds and getting to visit the hundreds of roosting cockatoos each evening

Traffic as a thing of the past

Fog on the lake

That pretty much everyone is involved in some sort of social sport

Never being more than a 5 minute walk from nature

Having a creek behind my house

Calvary Hospital – it served me very well… too bad about the crucifixes

Asian Noodle House

The awesome bike / walking paths

Location – snow, bush, beach, big smoke… all within striking distance

Dislike:

Aggressive attitudes on the roads

Canberrans are generally a***holes

Doesn’t make up for the fact that we’re not near a beach, we get second rate AFL teams playing at Manuka Oval, we don’t get to host the Australian cricket team in a one day match (even Hobart beats us),we don’t get the big international acts coming here even though Bruce stadium can hold 15k , we don’t have an international airport and we don’t have a train network.

or abysmal pollution. or unbearable humidity. and we do have parrots. and we can see the stars. and there’s a bus and a train out of town if you don’t wanna stay and enjoy them… (who’d want oprah or u2 here anyway? i’ve seen nirvana here, herbie hancock, eric clapton. albert collins – even got backstage at this last one, but this wouldn’t happen in sinney… who d’ya want?)

Doesn’t make up for the fact that we’re not near a beach, we get second rate AFL teams playing at Manuka Oval, we don’t get to host the Australian cricket team in a one day match (even Hobart beats us),we don’t get the big international acts coming here even though Bruce stadium can hold 15k , we don’t have an international airport and we don’t have a train network.

Used to thank the bus driver in Sydney as well but its more noticeable here as (a) you exit from the door near the driver and not the middle door (still can’t work that one out) and (b) there is hardly anyone on the bus so they can hear you.

A few more good things than i can think of:

People walking past your house knock on your door if you left your car lights on

People apologise when you walk around a blind corner of a building and have to move aside

Short people always ask me to reach items off the high shelves at the supermarket

One time 2 people pulled over to help when my motorbike ran out of fuel while i was waiting for a friend

We seem to get all excited if someone asks for some directions