and canberra gets even more boring...

Canberrans will no longer be able to enjoy fireworks over the Queen's Birthday long weekend. Industrial Relations Minister John Hargreaves today announced the permanent ban on the importation, sale and use of fireworks in the ACT.

We got two evenings, from 5-9pm over one long weekend, in the middle of Canberra's soul-sucking winter, to buy and use fireworks. It was something actually cool about Canberra, because fireworks are illegal everywhere else in Oz. Now I'll have to wait for my next trip to Japan to play with fireworks. :(

"The Government understands that many Canberrans will still have fireworks that were bought legally on previous Queen's Birthday long weekend. We will be encouraging people to do the right thing and hand in any stored fireworks for safe disposal without any questions asked."

Yeah. That's going to happen.

roll on, last minute shopping!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I'm working, but the Chairman (like a CEO) always sends an email out on the last day to tell everyone to go home at lunchtime. As you can imagine, everyone likes that tradition. It's also payday, and almost all government employees get paid on the same day, so the shops are going to be busy, but not too insane, as half of Canberra has already taken off for their holidays. Canberra is so deserted around this time of year that some restaurants shut down for two weeks. This is the first place I've ever lived where that was the case. The cinema never has much of a line and you can actually finish your Christmas shopping without lines ten people deep.

I have maybe four presents left to buy and somewhere in there I need to get a haircut, too. I finally sent some Christmas cards out on Monday. They'll be late of course, but seeing as this is the first time in three Christmases that I managed to actually post the things, I'm going easy on myself. :)