When a kindly-looking elderly woman asked if she could share my table at a cafe not so long ago, I happily shifted seats, moved my computer and gave her the lion’s share of the space. Then, after sitting down, she scolded me for using a laptop in a laptop-free zone . In true British fashion, I apologised excessively.
In true Australian fashion, she applied the rules excessively, pointing disapprovingly at the sign partially hidden by the espresso machine that had escaped my gaze. One of the surprises of coming to live here was the realisation that the story Australia tells itself about being a land of rule-breakers and anti-authoritarians is fallacious. Ned Kelly, and all that, is a myth.
Meek are most Australians in obeying a sometimes bewildering number of rules. Rigid are the authorities in applying them. A traffic warden on patrol at SCEGGS, Darlinghurst.
Credit: Edwina Pickles Take school drop-off , which often becomes a game of cat and mouse with the squadron of council parking inspectors dispatched like SWAT teams to ensure harried parents park for only five minutes rather than six. Do they really need to levy such heavy fines? Do they need to show such zero tolerance ? Do they need to hunt in packs? These public servants are only doing their jobs, of course. My beef is not with them.
But are they truly serving the public? To those who learnt to drive in Britain or America, being ordered to park in the direction of the traffic flow is a novelty. Rear-to-curb parking .
