Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Adelaide - Belly Button lint or Ecstasy?


Belly buttton lint is obviously an intoxicating substance. Adelaide for some reason does a lot of navel gazing and some people may purposely or accidentally inhale or eat navel lint and suffer from the halucinatory effects of this blue fluff. A big country town is a title that can be applied to Port Lincoln or Mount Gambier. Although, Mount Gambier is classed as a city. Then there are those dear old talking heads who refer to Adelaide as a big country town. No it is not. A big country town is where you go to a public or entertainment event and have a quick social chat with the ticket seller and recognise many of the audience. A big country town is a place that has a population that has numerically just under or just over the amount of people required to be called a city. That figure is tens of thousands not hundreds of thousands.

For the first time in months I am buying The Advertiser during the week, only because of the Vision for 2020 series. First thing that is catching my attention in the articles is the disparity between Olde Adelaide and Young Adelaide. Olde Adelaide appears to have this ideal of suburban jockeying for identity, literally 'keeping up and getting one step in front of the neighbours'. Perhaps this is why the Airport, Bus Terminal and Interstate Train Depot have languished for so long. Almost as if they are necessary to have but damned if we are going to have attractive places on hand that may attract people to leave the state.

For all the comments that infer how, supposedly, SA is viewed interstate it is a great myth propagated about nothing. It is nothing, but a little tale that has reached bogeyman proportions. Is it the ultimate Urban Myth?

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff