You guys,

> It must be that Aussies have thicker skulls or maybe the extra current
> gets
> shunted thru all the beer in the bloodstream <g> <duck> <don asbestos
> underwear>

I did some work at Pine Gap - a highly secretive joint Aussie/American
installation out in the outback of Australia which is presently in the
news a lot with protesters against Australia's support for the US
making a nuisance of themselves. This base is complete with a massive
Russian Antonov that comes every Wednesday with supplies. I don't know
if was always an Antonov (I assume not), but this flight is still
affectionately known as the "Mac flight" as inside it's belly of
precious cargo were frozen Big Macs for all the expat Americans who
just needed a fix! There is now a MacDonald's in town, so they no
longer pine for the beloved flavours of their homeland. :-)

However, I will never forget going into this boardroom where there was
a bank of VCRs, a large monitor and host of other similar appliances.
Under each device was a large (200mm cube - er, sorry 10" cube)
transformer powering each device. I said (quietly - I'd only just
arrived) to my host "don't they know that we have VCRs and TVs here?" -
to which he replied "Oh no. They all seem to think we still live in
grass huts!" :-)

Later in the day, I asked for a soldering Iron. I got the same Weller
soldering station that I had on my bench (at the time) back in Sydney.
I started to walk away and they yelled out "Hang on, you need this!"
and I saw them getting out that same bloody transformer I had seen in
the board room earlier that day! I had to carry that bastard over a
kilometre to where I was working!

Lovely people, and I was treated like royalty. At no time did I feel
that I was in such a sensitive environment. But no, there is no point
to flame you over such comments when even the United States military
has such high opinions of a small, but important ally! :-)

I saw a US military (propaganda?) film about "US boys on R&R downunder"
made during WWII - a very sore point for most Australian men of
fighting age during WWII  - but there was a classic line that I never
forget - referring to Sydney - "Our boys feel right at home here - they
even have tall buildings!"

Not much has changed - as far as opinions go - we have even taller
buildings now though! :-)

Sean

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