Here's a bit of news from the world of Aussie politics. Our House of Reps has a Speaker, as does the U.S. House; unlike the U.S. system, though, this role is separated from the role of leading the majority party (that being the Prime Minister, who is also Head of Government). The Speaker is supposed to be an impartial enforcer of the rules of House debate and such like. (They will still generally come from the majority party.)

For the last couple of years, our Speaker has been Bronwyn Bishop, a hardline conservative. She was massively partisan in the role, ejecting 393 Labor Party MPs from the House during her tenure but only 7 government MPs.

She was forced to resign a week ago in a scandal over travel expenses. The Liberal Party has just announced her replacement: the new Speaker of the House is Tony Smith, member for Casey. [link]

And his son is in Ryan's class at school.

And his son is in Ryan's class at school.

Are they buddies?

My birth word is "guilt trip". Discuss.

I laughed at this, but I felt bad about it.

aurelia and I share a birth word (gasp!).

I share it with you! I am delighted by it.

I laughed at this, but I felt bad about it.

Ha!

I think I may have solved my custard problem. I certainly like this set up with the roasting pan better than anything else I have tried. We'll see if the current batch of flan sets.

Are they buddies?

They get on pretty well, not best friends or anything but they play together sometimes. He seems a pretty good-natured kid. (When Ryan was Star of the Week and all the other kids were supposed to write something positive in his book, this boy wrote that Ryan was "an independent worker".)

I laughed at this, but I felt bad about it.

My work here is done.

Mine is punkster.

Same with my DH. He claims that's better than bada-bing.

Franny's birth word is flash mob.

Mine is "nip and tuck". Um.

Mine is brainiac.