BUY SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF IN FREMANTLE

It is probably going to be a mad shopping rush before Christmas on the weekend and I am not looking forward to overcrowded supermarkets and shops and inflated prices for everything. It’s good I am not joining any lunches, dinners or parties, as I want to use the time to reflect and read books. I have been out and about, had hundreds of meetings, attended workshops, Fremantle council and committee meeting, forums, and events and I am a bit peopled out and don’t want to socialise much at all.

I might spoil myself and cook something special, but with 40 degrees expected on Christmas, it might just be a bit of smoked salmon on salad with some nice bread. Good books are a must for me over the festive season. I love to escape in a great novel and let the real world rush by outside, and of course I’ll be watching the Boxing Day test match.

Roel Loopers

EVENTS THAT MAKE FREO AND AUSTRALIA SPECIAL

Today is a special day in Australia. It’s AFL Grand Final day. Although I am not a fanatical football or sports fan I always watch the AFL final, as I do the Melbourne Cup horse race and the Boxing Day cricket test match. They are historic and significant days for me where we celebrate Australia.

It made me think of the stand out days in Fremantle for me and I can’t get passed the Blessing of the Fleet as one of my favourites. I used to love St Patricks Day when there was still a parade through Freo, but now it’s only drinking in the pub stuff that does not inspire me much at all.

On the heels of these two events come the Fremantle Festival Parade, The Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta, the Easter weekend Street Art Festival and the Wardarnji Aboriginal Festival. All great events that make Freo special, and so is Australia Day and the fireworks over Bathers Beach.

I am also a huge fan of the free Sunday concerts at the Fremantle Art Centre and of the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra Christmas Proms there, as I am of the Indian Food Festival on the Esplanade.

To paraphrase Freo councillor Rachel Pemberton, if you are bored in Freo it means you are not getting out much. Come join the fun, meet new people, be part of your community!

Tomorrow at 10 am is the start of the Gentlemen’s Vintage Bicycle Ride at the Fremantle Art Centre!

Roel Loopers

FREO INDIANS CHICKEN OUT

Fremantle can be such an endearing place for those who keep their ears and eyes wide open, as these two examples show.

The owner of the MAYA Indian Restaurant in Market street either has got a very good sense of humour, or is fed up with patrons gloating about the Australian cricket team making extra mild and timid butter chicken out of the Indian team at the WACA. A sign on the window states that condition of entry is no cricket discussions.

Thanks to vivacious Freo councillor Rachel Pemberton for pointing out the sign!

 

Another funny episode today was at Nando’s in Collie Street, where I noticed a family of Muslims outside, which suprised me. When walking by a family member came out of the restaurant smiling “I asked if the chicken was halal and they looked strange at me and asked what halal was” he laughed.

Multiculturalism, it is such a lovely challenge for us all.

Roel Loopers

FREMANTLE PORTS STRIKE

The MUA called for a 24 hour strike at the Patricks terminal at Fremantle Ports today. Wharfies were manning the picket line playing cricket and drinking coffee early this morning.

Photo copyright Roel Loopers

ROLE MODEL OXYMORON

Whenever a celebrity, be that a movie, pop, sport, or political star, does something wrong, the media cries out loud that this is not acceptable behaviour for a role model, but what actually are role models and why are they supposed to be different from the average man in the street.

We have had “role models” who drink too much and misbehave, and that is not on, according to those in society who believe they have the right to judge others.  If excessive drinking is a no-no, than a huge number of parents are not good role models, as they indulge in it as well.

The same applies to driving too fast and receiving speeding tickets. Many parents do that, so again they are not really perfect to raise children. Or are parents exempt from being role models for their kids?

A far more important question though is why do role models have to be perfect? Do we really want to set standards for our children that are unrealistic and not achievable? Should they go through early life believing their role models are somehow super human robots, who don’t fail now and then, and who never make mistakes. Surely that would only result in children questioning their own abilities, and seeing themselves as failures and losers.

Wouldn’t it be better instead to have role models who are like us; real tangible people with real insecurities and issues, real people who like good food and a drink, who sometimes drive too fast to get somewhere on time, real people who make the wrong judgement calls and decisions at times, real people who’d like to be perfect, but who are intelligent enough to realise that that is the dream other people have about role models.

It’s time to accept that a perfect human being is a contradiction in terms, or someone in absolute self-denial.

Oh, and I am the exception of course! I am a Roel model. &>)

Roel Loopers