Nanny State

Coming from a country where even petrol stations are allowed to sell alcoholic drinks as ‘essential traveller needs’, I have always found Australian alcohol licensing practices rather bizarre. To Australian regulators, beer, wine and spirits seem to be in the same danger category as guns and porn – and thus have to be hidden from the public’s view in specialised stores.

The morning after held an unpleasant surprise. My right arm was sore, and my left shoulder hurt at every move. It felt as if I had dug a trench right through our garden. In fact, my wife and I had only spent an evening in front of the telly. If only we had known what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to get a Nintendo Wii game console.

While driving back to Sydney on the Hume Highway after a short visit to Melbourne, I started questioning Visit Victoria’s legendary slogan ‘You’ll never want to leave.’ Judging by the road signs along the way, they should have instead said, ‘You’ll never manage to leave.’