Desperately seeking Paul Keating in Wedding Cake
After viewing the ABC television show , Media Watch , this tired old blogger hit the sack...Then I found myself inside Darwin's parliament house , above, known as the Wedding Cake , as the newly appointed press secretary to the new Chief Minister, Paul Keating , a former Australian Prime Minister .
By Peter Simon
In an attempt to have my first tete-a-tete with Keating , I went looking for him . Walking from office to office, I asked if anybody had seen Paul Keating . No . On and on I went . A public servant suggested he could be on the roof , so I went up there and came across a bizarre situation - a pile of boulders like the Devil's Marbles , south of Tennant Creek . (I know , doctor , it sounds as if I have rocks in my head . )
Then , like a drone , a flying turtle rocketed into view among the boulders . It had no head , arms which rotated like lawnmower blades , it's shell metallic looking . I chased after it , but it levitated , shot away like a flying saucer. The tabloid reporter came out in me as I thought of the fabulous story that could be written about Myrtle, the Flying Turtle in the Wedding Cake .
It was now imperative that I locate Keating and tell him about the turtle , get him to make a lighthearted media release about this odd , gravity defying reptile . It would make a change from crocodiles which get so much coverage in the Northern Territory News.
Galloping from office to office , I still could not find Keating . Imagine my shock when I pushed open a door , and there was a public servant , standing , feeding a giant , feathered monster through a barbed wire fence , like a scene out of Jurassic Park !!!( A former speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly had wrestled snakes that tried to gobble her chooks .)
At this stage I jumped up , wide awake , in bed , picked up the pillows I had tossed on the floor during the night . What would Sigmund Freud say about this dream ?
Was it something I ate -cheese on crackers - that caused the dream ? Many moons ago I had been press secretary to the ALP Leader of the Opposition in Darwin, Jon Isaacs ; just recently I had listened to news about fracking going ahead in the Territory, possibly the inspiration for the rotating turtle ?
