(Untitled)

[channonyarrow]

As an American, I believe firmly that if I am prepared to hand over good money for something, that thing should be available.

This does not seem like a difficult concept. You have something I want, I have money, we trade these things, and everyone goes home happy. I am not left trying to figure out who I have to kill to get what I want, and I

Comments

[cupiscent]

Sorry, I know this isn't helpful, but ROFLMAO!

Ahem. It helps my mirth that I'm Australian, and was boggling at your density of population and attendant retail resources while I was over there. How we do things over here is stalk the internet for obscure specialists from whom we can order things like odd craftie bits, and books, and groceries. Perhaps this approach would be of use for you?

Also, "Twelve inch clock hands" should open for NIN on their next tour. ("Electrified were-camel" can be the name of their first album.)

[channonyarrow]

No, actually, that is entirely helpful. I like to turn my suffering into other peoples' laughter, seriously. Class clown, I was.

I've heard about Australia (wow, that sounds so sketchy). I mean, you guys I guess pay insane shipping and import duties on things? I'm on a bunch of crafting comms and every so often someone is looking for a supplier in Australia because ordering from the US or UK will take ten billionty years to get there and cost more money than anyone ever makes, it seems. I guess a lot of stuff still gets shipped by boat, so, forever to arrive. Like, months. Or am I just living in some bizarre fantasy land and making things up again?

But! I have found my hands! They are on eBay, and I am about to put a bid on them (and speaking of shipping, the opening bid is 99 cents, so OF COURSE the shipping is sixteen dollars). It seriously seems that no one actually has such large hands available otherwise, though I didn't look at Etsy at all.

That band, and tour, would be the best thing ever. Why does it not exist?

[cupiscent]

I work in the book trade and was talking with an author friend the other day about the lead-in time on her books with her US publisher, and I was flabberghasted how quickly they could get the printed product, until I remembered they didn't have to have them shipped from Singapore. (Yes, on actual ships, because airfreight on 1500 books? Yeowch.)

We are isolated, yeah. And small, and scattered, and few. There are many, many, many upsides to being Australian, but alas not many of them are retail-related.

The other option that might be worth considering, it occurs to me, is finding a metalsmith and commissioning your own hands? (I'm not sure how feasible this is. I have a very clever father who does things like turn candlesticks for me and convert an electronic organ into a roll-top desk, and I'd just say, "Dad, could you do this?" and he would disappear into his cave looking thoughtful and come back two days later with something brilliant. I appreciate he is a solid gold resource. *G*)

Or, just use a knife and fork.

[channonyarrow]

I have to admit, pretty much everything I know about Australia (other than that I used to joke that so much of my flist was Australian that I should do a world tour) is from Bill Bryson, which may be like admitting that I kill puppies - I mean, I think he does a fair job of reporting and investigating such as he does, but maybe everyone in Australia thinks he's just the biggest wanker ever. But what he says has given me that impression, that it's sort of oddly isolated. Which I'm not used to because, having lived both in the US and the UK I feel like there's not really a HUGE difference between those two countries and they're definitely part of the same world, as it were, but Australia's kind of WAY out there and WAY far away. (Hi, I'm really parochial about your country!) Though I also lived in Alaska for a couple summers, working in the tourist industry, so I have some familiarity with the whole "It gets here on a boat. And that is why your coffee, that you THINK you can get at home for a buck, costs you six. Now go buy a

[cupiscent]

I've never read any Bryson - which may be like admitting I'm uncultured swine, but I already said I'm Australian. *G* It's pretty true, though: we are isolated. It takes a lot of time and money to get from here to just about anywhere. It takes a lot of time and money just to travel from one population centre to another inside the country. But I was sitting next to an amusing Canadian couple on my flight back to Australia, and they were commenting on how self-sufficient they'd found Australia to be, which I think is also true. We grow and make and create an awful lot of everything we consume. That can be part of why things are expensive here: they're being made for a smaller audience. But it's part of who and how we are, and I love our laid-back corner of the world so much. *G*

[channonyarrow]

That is actually a lot of his point (and since you didn't get out the deathglare, I can totally recommend In A Sunburned Country), that Australia does so marvellously at so many things, or goes completely batshit about some things, because of the isolation. It sounds like your censorship laws were really, really strict for a very long time there.

I kind of really want to go to Australia someday, but I also feel a bit like there can only be one Paris, and since that's Paris... When I went to Paris, I thought "This is not going to live up to the hype, it can't possibly, and anyway, I don't even WANT to like it." And it was wonderful. It was smelly, sure, but the people I talked to were nice and very patient with my extreme monolinguism, and it just was amazing in a way I'd thought it couldn't possibly be. Is it possible to have that twice in one's life? I hope so, because Australia's on notice. Spread the word. *g*