The G20 arrives Down Under to my sleepy little city of Brisbane.

Hello there!

The things you do to procrastinate when you're taking part in the NaNo challenge. I've been meaning to change my blog URL to something more sensible like my name and it just couldn't wait. So now I've botched up everything until the FeedBurner redirection kicks in. 

If you are sweet enough to have me on your blogroll, please change the old URL to the new one. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I don't want to miss your visits (I know, I should have thought of that before I started messing around).




OLD blog URL: http://laussieswritingblog.blogspot.com.au
NEW URL for same blog : http://dencovey.blogspot.com

I lost my whole blogroll when I made the change. Too silly of me! So if you don't see your name on my blogroll, I am in the business of reinstating you. Give me a nudge if you wish.


G20 INVASION BEGINS – 7 DAYS TO GO

My city Brisbane is just a big country town of two million+ people. So why all the big guns are coming Down Under for their G20 meeting is beyond most of us. It's rather unsettling having images like this on the front covers of our local newspapers. We've already noticed a few changes to our laid-back lifestyle and on Monday we go into G20 lockdown. 

I live in the Red Zone, only a few hundred metres from the Exhibition Centre where the meetings are taking place. All sorts of restrictions are in place. Roads are closed. Barricades are up. Getting into the Inner City will be a pain.

Seeing the face can only be covered for religious reasons, protesters are dressing in black burqas as they demonstrate against capitalism seeing that 80% of the world's economy is represented at the G20. So they will be using their smart phones, iPads etc, all products of capitalism to record events.

Lawyers are going to be everywhere on the lookout for any unfair treatment of protesters. Not sure what good that will do as police and military have been granted special powers during the summit.

Of course egos will be through the roof. As you may/may not know our, um, rather silly Prime Minister Tony Abbot didn't want Putin here as he believes he's behind the shooting down of the MH17 Malaysian Airlines plane (I agree with Abbot on this one point and so do most Australians). 

Of course, more powerful politicians than Abbot have said Mr Putin must come and Abbot must desist in his threats to 'shirt-front' Putin, whatever that means. 

So dear, sweet little Brisbane has had to import police from all over Australia and even New Zealand for the event as there's not usually that much criminal activity taking place. Police numbers will be complemented by the Army. They will be needed as we're told that if we drive into the Inner City (which I have to do Sunday night) our car will be searched by 6 police or military and if we have any of the banned items on the 'restricted' list, we will be in big trouble. So I'd better leave the eggs and cans of food at home.

So, this week will be different for me and a lot of other citizens. I will be teaching from home as the State Library is closed as it's practically next door to the power centre. But there are some positives--lots of shows and light displays. Must get out and take some pictures, maybe for next post. The city is always lovely at night. Now it's even lovelier.

• What's on your agenda this week? Any excitement your way?
• How's NaNo going if you're in? I'm limping along.