Doug PollardRainbow Reporter on holiday in the land of the condomaximum
May 21st 2009 05:42
Argosy, Arlington Esplanande, Clifton Beach, Queensland
But the show isn’t: ably captained by Cathy Anderson the Rainbow Report sails on, tonight 7-8pm, Joy 94.9FM, www.joy.org.au, while I relax in Far North Queensland. Listen in and hear what she’s got for you.
Here in Queensland, you can tell there’s a recession on: little traffic passes by, few boats set sail for the reef, the giant resort condos are two-thirds dark, many building sites are silent, and you don’t have to endure snotty staff telling you, no you can’t book a table for seven, they’ve nothing before eight, only to find when you turn up at seven for a drink that the place has only two tables occupied. Too many restaurants look desperate, their pavement menu boards plastered with special offers, take-away deals and chef’s specials.
Real estate – ever the barometer of economic activity in FNQ – is in the toilet. They’re actually holding auctions, something Queenslanders used to sneer at. And what could be more desperate than advertising a new block of holiday apartments as ‘condomaximums’?
However, one thing hasn’t changed. The wait staff all look about 14. I swear the boy who brought the water jug last night can’t have been older than 12. In fact he must have been pre-pubescent, because he wasn’t spotty, half-deaf, surly or forgetful, or interested in gossiping with his colleagues. The same could not be said of the food waiter, the drinks waitress, or the spotty boy who crept up behind me and bellowed, “Enjoying your meal?”, then ran off without waiting for an answer.
Actually, something else hasn’t changed – the overpricing in Palm Cove Restaurants. Over $100 for very ordinary fish & chips, steak & chips, a limp and soggy salad and a couple of sides, plus three bottles of Cascade.
Hubby and I were trying to decide whether the couple at the next table were mother and son or toyboy and keeper. He – just-twenty-something surfer boy – arrived drunk and got drunker, so I didn’t have to work hard to eavesdrop. He was indeed the toyboy.
I decided to have a little fun, so I made a few loud remarks about other ‘rice-and-potato’ couples we’d spotted around town, the older triad we’d seen on the beach squealing girlishly about the cold water, about how much gayer the place seemed this year, and so on.
With each new anecdote he pulled his chair closer to their table and farther from ours. From time to time I heard phrases like ‘not natural’ and ‘queens’ and then ‘when we leave, you go one way and I’ll go the other and I bet they follow me.’ She kept him firmly nailed to the table until we had gone.
It’s three in the afternoon, and by the ute traffic that’s suddenly sprung up, time for all good tradies to go him. The palms flutter in the cooling breeze, the sea shushes the sand, there’s not a cloud in the sky, and I am content.
I will be away from the show next week as well, and then brace yourself for some major news! Till then.
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Current Affairs
Rainbow Reporter
It was only possible because I was supported by a sponsor. When the sponsor withdrew, I had to stop doing it. If anyone knows of a sponsor willing to pay me a salary to make a daily show, I will happily do it!
Meantime, the Rainbow Report will end with this season, to be replaced by a new weekly 3 hour daytime show with a current affairs bias, hoisted by your's truly!!