Saturday Morning Musings - Bronwyn Bishop memes, Greece and women's long hair

The troubles of  Bronwyn Bishop; the speaker of the House of Representatives, have been well covered in the Australian media.

For those outside Australia, the troubles began when the speaker hired a helicopter to go from Melbourne to nearby Geelong for a Liberal Party fund raiser and have then continued over other aspects of her expense accounts.

The helicopter journey and subsequent controversy has created its own trope. I missed some of the best ones, but this example (Bronwyn Bishop orders take-away) will give you a feel.

On Greece, the Greek Parliament has passed the next stage of the bail-out legislation, so discussion continues. One of the issues is the extent to which the proposed Greek privatisation fund can actually raise the expected money. Meantime, film star Johnny Depp has reportedly spent 4 million euros ($A5.88 million) on Strongyli, a tiny island near Kastelorizo in the Eastern Aegean.

Now I have to say that there is a confusion here, for the island also appears to be spelt Stroggilo. Under this name, it has been for sale at 4.5 million euros.

It looks a very pretty island and indeed it has water, not something you find on all Greek islands. Still, its a big price to pay for a pocket handkerchief! Meantime, Johnny Depp's wife Amber Herd faces certain continuing problems over the illegal importation of pet dogs into Australia.

Ms Herd is reportedly very upset, and maybe Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce could have displayed a little more tact. He could, for example, have explained why the laws were important. Okay, he did that, but he couldn't resist the headline grab.

Australia's quarantine laws are important and do need to be enforced. The potential costs to Australia of breech far exceed the costs associated with illegal immigration, for example, although one could be forgiven for forgetting that.

On those immigration laws, Opposition Leader Shorten is trying to get through changes at the ALP's National Conference that will allow him to adopt a variant of the Government's turn back the boats policy. To do this, he is offerings various sweeteners including an increase in Australia's refugee intake. It's sad, really. We had something like this before on several occasions, be tough at the frontier but create a real path for genuine refugees, but it's always got lost in the politics of it all.

As I write, more Bishop memes are coming up.This is a Facebook page dedicated to them. Actually, some are fairly laboured. That is not a pun! You need a light touch with a meme.

My post In praise of plump women drew praise from Canadian blogger Barbara Martin. I really like Barbara's blog for its lovely posts on Canadian National Parks and scenery.

In a response to  That Australian life - bobbed haircuts, 2t wrote:

I've been meaning to write this piece forever and now I will, at least in brief. The girls and women here (East Timor), almost without exception, wear their hair in a tight bun (sometimes two buns), often sticking up vertically. Rural and older women will wear it a little further back to assist carrying things on their heads. The bun conceals magnificent long hair. Forgive the cliche, but it truly is a crowning glory. And forgive the lack of pictures, but I am the world's worst photographer.

Younger women often flirt by undoing the hair, letting it fall, shaking it out and then immediately doing it up again. I'd guess that it most often reaches the small of the back. It's not trimmed. The longest hair I have seen was on a university student, whose hair fell to mid-calf.

The bun is practical. It allows work to be done, motor cycles to be ridden and exposes a minimum surface to the ever-present dust. Some women wear their hair cut short (to the collar bone), layered and dyed. These are almost always richer, high-status women or their children.

I don't even know if lice are a problem here, although there is a word for it in my dictionary.

I do know that the long hair, usually curly but sometimes straight, is devastatingly attractive. And I have thought so since my own youth.

Now at the risk of being inconsistent with my own argument about taking women as they are, I too have always liked long hair for its sensuous feel. Ah well, nobody is perfect!

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