Steve Irwin - an unqualified view

I was just reading a few posts about the tragic and untimely death of Steve Irwin. (Jam the GG arguements or any similar - 44 is about as fucking untimely as you can get)

A few hours after we found out Steve was dead (via text message if you please? We were texted with "Did you know Steve Irwin is dead". Every word was spelt wrong - it came via Anna's (15 years)phone.)We were at the fish market picking up supplies for a special supper for my girlfriends birthday. The whole shop started talking about it.

I can confess to being a "knocker" of Steve's. That is simply because he was alive and whilst alive in Australia it is perfectly acceptable and very often appropriate for moments of humour, wit and our comfortable bad taste. Especially if you are in the spotlight - the tall poppy syndrome. It is simply part of our culture. Also he once said Little Johnny was the greatest leader in Australia and then REALLY got carried away and said the world. (Buggared if I can find the link to that now but it was truly vomit stuff) I will probably knock you if I hear you support Little Johnny just because I can.

When we had cable tv, "The Crocodile Hunter" was played rather persistantly. One blog I read mentioned that here in Australia we didnt see all that much - that lovely person probably didnt have small children to amuse. I went through a brief (manic) time of insisting my children only watch "Discovery Channel" "National Geographic" "The History Channel" etc.... mostly because had I let my wee ones they would of watched cartoons all day every day, and the very first time one of my kids told me to "eat my shorts" led to a short obsession with censorship that I invariably lost control of.
Anyhoo - (I can waffle hey?) My personal experience of that was that ole Stevie boy showed my kids how to milk cane toads on tv. How to gently squeeze the thingo's (I should of been watch the show too hey?) glands on the top of their head and the white stuff that came out was the poison. I had long stopped being afraid of cane toads, because I have seen my girls dress them in dolls clothes and place them in the cabbage patch clothes dolls pram (said cabbage patch doll turfed out face down in the lawn) and drag them around. Said cane toads would not mind this .. interaction for a while and then the bastards would escape and I would have teary girls who had lost their "babies". The cat and dog dried food attracted the damn toads. It is also very funny when you are six to throw a cane toad near your mother and ask her to kiss the "baby". Sadly I was the mother. But even I had engaging moments where you realise the toad is enjoying being stroked. We used a hell of a lot of dettol those days - but in the same sentence we also had to wash all the dettol of because it really made the toads suffer.

And my Jane... took to said "milking" task with great gusto - and until I asked her older sister why she had asked me for a jar I had NO IDEA WHAT SHE WAS BLOODY DOING!
Same year Jane also downloaded instructions for building home made bombs and printed them and I knew nothing about that until the school rang me to come in. Actually same year of what Jane did would take a novel. But she was right into anything ... hmmm experimental? It usually called for me having to apologise to other parents, teachers and children.

So I would knock him.. in the ocker way. No malice just "what a bastard!". Germaine Geers' horrible diatribe doesn't (to me) qualify under that kind of thing. I found this comment so very distasteful. "You can just imagine Irwin yelling: "Just look at these beauties! Crikey! With those barbs a stingray can kill a horse!" (Yes, Steve, but a stingray doesn't want to kill a horse. It eats crustaceans, for God's sake.)"

She mentions when a bird tore at his nose and the bird having more brains than a croc. Heavens - we all roared laughing when the bearded dragon bit his nose. And when the croc came very close to his genitals. We do the same when other Aussie adventurers have similar misadventures. Hell - I do it when my own kids get bitten by a lizard, cricket (I kid you not) or a fish. My finicky daughter the day a leech attached itself to her hand. Now - it was FUNNY!You know they had a small amount of pain and that isnt what you are laughing at but it is damn funny to see this stuff. Read Jellyfishes blog about the kid with the leech in his mouth. It simply is FUNNY.

"Just hold the critter there while Mummy gets the camera and do that again!" (They rarely oblige sadly)

I cant help myself I watch Malcolm Douglas because aside from any of the beautiful views, lovely animals I am waiting for him to bog himself hopelessly, or his dog to pinch the beautiful fish he just caught and yes I am waiting for him to hook himself on his home made lures. And - because part of their job is showman... he does! Hooray!

It is just astounding how venomous people can be.

I always try not to visit Tim Blair's blog. It is like a curiousity of something ghastly. A train wreck? Follow the link to the comments. But I did when I read Pavlov's Cat. I wish I didnt. (Not read her blog I mean - I love that - I mean follow the links) It then becomes like a stoning from "The Holy Grail".

Steve's death shocked me profoundly because I really never imagined a sting ray would kill you. Never. Maybe a small child or an elderly person. We often see sting rays and marvel in their incredible beauty. I have stood and watched them swim past me as I wait for my rod to tug and see them swim past me so close. And never did I feel scared. When we are fishing in the shallows in the boat and they swim past and are interested in our bait or what is struggling in the water that we have caught. And how close they are to me and how I have put my hand in the water to be closer and watch them watch me.

Once - only once did I have fear and that was when Maggie our Kelpie fishing mad dog went insane because Christian had one on the fishing line and she was being an absolute lunatic at the wonderful big hunting catch we had. I begged Christian to cut the line... and the line broke itself... and we fetched Maggie out of the water..... everyone safe. I almost stood on one accidently whiting fishing at Caloundra and Christian knocked me over backwards. I got up to abuse him - I had a fish and was stepping forward to get it and had almost stood on a very large one just sitting in his/her sand hole. I had to apologise then.. standing on one wouldnt be wise. But being near them never worried me. As a matter of fact their presence was always one of the most wonderful things for me and with the water.

I think Germaine Greers comment he "As a Melbourne boy, Irwin should have had a healthy respect for stingrays, which are actually commoner, and bigger, in southern waters than they are near Port Douglas," were a little bit lost. Dementia? He left Melbourne as a 6 year old and attended Caloundra High School? How are you a "Melbourne Boy" when the majority of your life was spent somewhere completely different? Ask your teenager of their memories under 6. I wonder why GG would assume he would assimilate himself as a "Melbourne boy"? Maybe she just has better booze and drugs than the rest of us! (Notwithstanding I really didnt like the horrible bully banter of Tim Blair's followers.)

My partner works 10 hour days in heat - never cold just heat. Even our winters are a lovely 24 C during the day but down a hole its a hell of a lot hotter. When he comes home he does an odd thing - he yells at the tv and the current affairs programs. It sometimes alarms me and the kids. He doesnt think he is yelling. He wears ear plugs all day - and he thinks he is just talking. It isnt a characteristic just of his - the children and I notice their father does the exact same thing. For some odd reason if something annoys them on the tv they yell some absolute rubbish and we all flee... because we think they must be cranky.

They are not - they just do this odd thing. And the first thing Christian heard was the reaction to GG. I said to him "She is actually a smart and witty woman who has certainly contributed to modern society BUT the way she makes money is she stirs up shit - and that is how she gets paid" or in similar words but with more swearing because he was yelling very loud and none of the kids, dogs or me like it if anyone yells. He wisely told me in a quiet voice - "when I have to stir up shit" (he means literally as in a sewer line problem) "all you do is yell at me."

Point taken he was quite right. I do.

My mother emailed me on how sad Steve Irwins passing was. And a Canadian chat friend asked me if I could post him the Australian news articles on the incident - which of course I can. Within hours of his death.

I loved what Pavlov's Cat did with Colin Theile, Don Chipp and Steve. I so seriously should pay attention to the news. I cried at Colin's death and I only read about it at PC's and then went and searched it. I still feed pelicans and fuck anyone who says I cant. THEY at least have always scared the shit out of me if I didnt. I know to respect them because aside from loving "Storm Boy" I know a 6 foot wing span squarking at me will make me let them have whatever they want. Eh - see here.. Colin allowed me to survive motherhood. I know what to be scared of! Kids were easy going - just hard work.

I honestly never knew sting rays kill you. I figured they are just pleasant creatures who get mighty cranky if you catch them and seeing we fish on light line almost always break free. I have eaten them once that I know of. And bloody nice too.

I read all the stuff about calling them slimy to touch. I didnt find them slimy to touch just smooth? And as to the "Dr Meridith... knowing Steve?" you can know anybody and not say what they did minutes before they died?

Steve said and did many things I disagreed with. But he did a hell of a lot more that I so approved of. And he wasnt some half assed twit that just did the minimum ... he stuck his head out. Dont trust your governments to buy land to save animals. It is your wealthy that will do it. To the twits that say there should be no private santuarys... may Harriet bite your ass in your sleep.

Above all - he loved his family and his animals. It is impossible for me to hate any man who can do that.