I'm a Turkey - or Swine as the case may be...

I was recently in Canberra for worky stuff and on the way home I stepped out the QANTAS club at the same time as Nicola Roxon (Federal Minister for Health & Ageing) stepped out of the Business club lounge (they separate them now; Qclub is so low brow these days you know).

She proceeded to join the queue for the plane to Swine flu central (a.k.a Melbourne) right behind lil old me.

Or at least I thought it was the Minister for Health - she was shorter than I imagined and trying to juggle a massive bunch of folders and notes that appeared to sum to about the same size and volume as herself.

("Mmmm... looks like a bit of an OH&S problem ya got right there..." I mused quietly to myself)

Trying not to appear like a total nong (always hard I know), I slipped a look at her boarding pass, and indeed it was the Federal Minister for Health her very self.

I couldn't help it...

"Well," I said "I feel just that bit more confident in the fate of the world seeing you jetting down to Melbourne not wearing a surgical mask..." or some dumb line like that.

She laughed and said some niceties and then I did it.

"This swine flu thingy - its all a bit blown out of proportion isn't it; like (I dont think I used the word "dude" here) it's just a normal every-year flu really..."

At which point she put on her race face and gave a me a mini lecture on flu and mutations and spreads and WHOs and...
"Oh well, either way, guess its all a good dry run for the big one then..."
and she gave me the
'MMmmmm... not sure about that one'
mumble and gaze.

We actually had nice little chat as the queue crawled along (she kept telling me how tired she was... "somewhat understandable given the situation" I think I said) and when we eventually boarded the plane the hostie even asked if we were going to be sitting together.
("NO!" we both replied in unison... not quite sure what that meant but probably indicated I knew my place (economy) and she just wanted rid of this guy in a rather nice blue jacket (no tie). Either that or she needed the extra seats for her skyhigh pile of manila folders/I didn't want to be Stuart Diver'd in a bizarre manila folder collapse accident.)

Then it hit me.

I deal with nutbag climate sceptic arguments event day.
Serious, loony, uninformed nutbags.
They drive me crazy.

They've never read a climate paper.
They've never been to a climate conference.
They've never even talked to a climate scientist.
Yet they feel they can tell me that they know whats really happening with the climate.
(Ay Kurumba...)

And thats effectively what I did (just replace "climate" with "swine flu" in the above)...
To the Federal Minister for Health!

Nicola - I apologise.
And hope you get more sleep (watch the folders).