It's easy to be an ostrich on the Coast - there's plenty of sand.

A little cacoon time is called for. I know I put shit on the quietude of the Goldie, but sometime, just sometimes I am pleased to be so far removed from all the awful in the world.

I watch the news and see things escalating in the Ukraine and read about the Malaysian Airlines mystery and I am pleased that the most newsworthy thing going on here is about a middle sized doggie with a sore leg - Yeh that's Dibley Dog, so I didn't have to dig too deep for details.

I am very pleased that I am nowhere near the Ukraine, even though in the abstract, St Petersburg is still high on my bucket list. I am pretty sure that I would need to be well and truly sedated to embark on a trip to Russia for my birthday. I just cannot get into the mind set of people like Putin and whoever is backing him. I do not understand the want and the need and drive to take over a country. Shit I don't even like the thought of being enough in control of Dog to insist that she shakes hands or rolls over on cue. I do however understand the demonstrations in the Ukraine. I would hope that every Aussie would be standing side by side if similar was happening here. But of course it doesn't happen here because luckily or not, we are a distant backwater, of little importance to most of the rest of the world.

I very much doubt if there were terrorists involved in the Airplane disappearance, that they were after the half dozen Aussies on board. I know that the Bali Bombing seemed to target Aussies, and this certainly should not be dismissed. I was rocked to stone still as I watched the images of a devastated Kuta, a place I had been to not long before the bombing. The senselessness of it all still beggars belief.

Generally in this huge backwash we are safe and more than a little closeted from the truly desperately awful goings on in the world.

I was in London when the IRA bombed Ealing Broadway tube station and still there when the terrorist attacked the buses and city tube stations years later. The horror of it lingers. The text messages sent every day for a long time to say that I was out of the tube and off to work were a way of making light of it all but I can still recall the fear of going down the escalators to board the train for work. No choice, just Stay Calm and Carry On.

Generally we Aussies have no first hand experience with all this awfulness and for that we should be all very grateful.

Mmmmm,  sometimes living in a backwater has very big advantages.