A piece I wrote about the children’s cutlery Qantas gave Daisy on our flight to Australia is up on the Guardian Travel blog. You can comment on it over there if you’d like. It’ll make them think more people are reading it!
I’ve got to say, I’m still not sure about this professional blogging thing. I like it here on The Fully Air-conditioned Sound of Speed. It’s nice and cosy and I’m hanging out with people who are friends. Over at the Guardian blog I’ve already been told that I’m crap and a whinger.
And middle class!
That seems to be the worse insult an English person can throw at you!
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Wow, what a bunch of wankers they have commenting on the guardian site! I enjoyed the post, I have a daughter about the same age and truly wonder what the designers were thinking when they made that cutlery. My daughter has enough trouble getting her food from the plate to mouth without putting a wiggle in the utensil.
Guardian readers calling you middle class?! Pot. Kettle. Black.
GREAT BRADMANS GHOST!! What a collection of self satisfied toolbags that post comments on the Guardian. Maybe their free range soy chai low food miles organic fair trade green knickers are wedged firmly up their collective arses.
I have lived in London for 8 years and just don’t understand them at all, it’s like they are determined to turn their country to shit by being mental.
Anyway, stop reading the guardian, start reading the SMH or The Age online. And while you are at it you can stream TripleJ because there are no decent radio stations here. Australian media is much better and a little more relaxed, except for Andrew Bolt, but John Safran and Dr Karl compensate for him.
And a little less of the familiarity with us commentors over here until you have bought us each a beer…
Ha, I love all the comments on the guardian, I love how people take the time to post “you’ve wasted my time”.
I really enjoyed the article, I love how you notice the minutae of travelling life. I hope you kept the cutlery, will make a good dinner party story to bring it out.
The cutlery’s awesome, in a really useless kinda way.
Your Guardian post was fine – don’t those Poms realise they were reading the blog section and not the front page?
I was a week short of my 18th birthday the first time I flew in a plane – on my way to South Africa. Because I was with a school tour (a state swim team, not some private school thing… I had to sell $5000 worth of raffle tickets to get to go!) we got to go and see the cockpit… and the Qantas stewardess let us eat peanuts in the back of the first class section. It was awesome!
Right, there’s only one solution for this. From now on, anyone who wants to publish a blog on the Guardian website must pass a series of tests to prove that they are:
a) poor
b) english
c) humourless
d) carbon off-setting each keystroke
I go back to the UK in two weeks and I have to say that one of the things I am going to miss about Australia is the fact that there is no ‘class’ system.
P.S. I met you briefly in Sydney after going to your book launch in Glebe a couple of months ago, I will read your ‘Vroom’ book on the way home.:)
I thought the article was just the kind of escapism people need. Whilst not having children of my own I do have the attention span of a 5-yr old when flying long haul and I seem to readily notice such quirks. The upshot being I’ll be laughing (loudly) about something when the ubiquitous fussy traveller sat next to me turns and gives me a look along the line of “public displays of any emotion are not permitted”.
Perhaps Qantas should think about bringing out a range for the adults to play with so we can keep ourselves amused too…it would certainly mean my co-travellers wouldn’t find themselves spotted in inflight meals (unless they deserved it!)
What a load of sanctimonious drivel certain guardian readers come out with! You’d think they’d have better things to do with their time, like hug trees and listen to jazz. Personally I’d take pride in knowing that I’d upset the lefties….
Definitely a harsh set of comments (on the Guardian article, not in here!) – have they never had moments of observing the interesting among the mundane things in life? Their loss, I guess…
OMG… I was shocked at the utter FURY you unleashed over there. Yikes. What the hell is wrong with people?
do not let it bother you!
what surprises me; the deal with The Wiggles was struck in October 2004 so this cutlery is in use for quite some time, why no one spoke about before? it is too wacky