(Day 7) Illness

(Day 7) Thursday 8^th March

I woke up today feeling like I had been in a car crash, all the exposure to the elements from Mardi Gras and putting down my deposit had come at me at once and I felt like shit.  It was also probably due to living with so many different people in the hostel.  I heard a lot of coughing so there was probably something going around the hostel.  The person who brought the cold to the hostel is probably long gone but the cold survives by going from one new person to the next new person.

This morning I couldn't even get up to go down for the wonderful free breakfast.  Instead I just spent all day either sleeping, watching Australian TV or blowing my nose.

Australian TV reminds me of American TV, it is all very dramatic.  There were adverts for programmes that exposed “evil people”.  One of these programmes I watched was about a shipping company that refused to rescue 12 men from the sea during a storm.  Another programme was about a bank that was firing or paying staff very low wages whilst people high up in the bank were having champagne parties and business trips to Fiji. 

During these programmes you are made aware of who the good people were and who the bad people were.  The good people always come across sincere and speak very clearly, there is a warm filter lens over the camera and simple slightly upbeat music is played in the background.  However when the bad person comes up on your screen, the camera lens is dark and grey and the background music becomes moody and sinister.

It is interesting watching this kind of TV.  Programmes like this in the England are always more neutral where these programmes really get your emotions going.  You really start to feel for the good people and when the bad person comes up your like “there’s that fucker!”

Another thing I noticed about Australian TV was how commercialised it was.  There were just adverts everywhere!  TV programmes would stop abruptly and some dickhead would come up talking about car insurance.  Even the programmes themselves had adverts in them.  I was watching some live sports programme (think it was rugby) and a slow motion action reply was shown.  At the end of the reply the commentator said “This action reply was brought to you by Freddie’s Autoshop, the autoshop you can always count on” (or something like that).

Anyway I have had quite enough of TV now, hopefully I will feel well enough to leave my room tomorrow.  Not the best way of ending my first week in Australia.