In 2010, Iceland got back at the world for its crumbled economy by stopping air travel all over the world by erupting. In 2011, a volcano in Chile called  Puyehue decided to have a go at that too, but the main this huge ashcloud did was create amazing sunsets over Tasmania. The photo above is a crappy shot of mine. Much better ones are in this photo gallery. 

Water, water everywhere and Arab nations get springy

2011 continued with a barrage of natural disasters with Queensland in flood, Cyclone Yasi making an appearance, causing more flooding, and Victoria deciding flooding looked like fun and joined in.

Elsewhere on the globe, a new nation was formed with Southern Sudan breaking away from the north. There’s quite a substantial Sudanese popular in Australia, mostly from the south, so it made the headlines here.

2011 was the year of the Arab Spring with protests and revolutions taking place in various Arab nations over the months. It’s rather fascinating to watch the Arab Spring movement from a far. I don’t know enough about the politics or history to really comment, but I wish them well.

In the USA, a group of pissed off people decided to occupy Wall Street, sparking the Occupy protest movement. I think there’s a strong reason for protests like this , particularly when well targeted, such as the Wall Street ones. However, I think the movement lost some credibility when people were setting up things like the Occupy Hobart, which just left the dozen or people involved with it looking stupid. It failed because they didn’t have any particular reason to be doing it. We don’t have quite the same issues in Australia as the US, and people protesting about vague ideas and confused concepts just messes everything up.

In 2011, Tasmania finally got a female premier when Lara Giddings took over from David Bartlett.

Music that I used to know

2011 was the year Gotye became the world’s earworm with Somebody That I Used to Know. That song was everywhere, and it became a meme and it helped launch Kimbra to  a wider audience as well. 

Was there any other music last year? Not that I noticed. It was all bloody Gotye.

I’m still not a meme

We moved house again in 2011. Mostly because our other house had got a bit nasty after a weird thing with a former tenant coming into the house when we weren’t there, changing the locks and then having them break in and steal stuff. The real estate agents were less than useless and very rude about the whole thing and then they wanted to put the rent up. Goodbye house.

I got a partial promotion. I got to “act up” in the role of state editor. I’m still acting up, but only for a few more months. My partner turned 30 and I spent a few months making fun of him, but as I’m about to turn 30 myself, that has to stop now.