A weird, wonderful, barking April
An Icelandic ash cloud, a Melbourne storm, an Indian summer across much of Australia and a British election that appears, from this far distance at least, to have become a television talent contest. You can now buy "I agree with Nick" t-shirts in Britain, apparently, not that I expect many readers of this blog to be placing orders.
All that in a month when Susan Boyle, the Nick Clegg of singing, cancelled her trip down under, and in which Australia produced its very own internet sensation - "barking man", whose that have made him a prisoner in his own bungalow quickly went viral.
I should have known April was set to be a weird month when I opened with a blog about how Australian artists no longer depicted the landscape as if it were the Alps or the Scottish Highlands. Days later, I found myself reporting on how the Melbourne-based painter Sam Leach had for the best Australian landscape by reproducing what many people thought looked in parts like a photocopy of a Dutch masterpiece featuring an Italian shoreline.
Blog-wise, it has been a fairly lively month, and I wanted to get back to you on some of your comments, and to provide a few updates and further thoughts on some of the topics covered.
The Lie of the Storm: Would the fans still turn up to watch a scandal-tossed side capable of winning games but incapable of winning points? Yes, for now, it seems. Almost 24,000 fans turned out for their home game on Sunday evening, a relatively small crowd by Melbourne sports standards, I know, but a large crowd for the Storm.
The former player and coach Phil Gould, the "biggest brain in footie," made some interesting points about the salary cap on Channel Nine's Footy Show last Thursday night. At a time when so many players are heading to Britain where they can earn more money, and when rugby league is facing so much competition from Aussie Rules, the salary cap is making it harder to compete. The counter-argument is that only a few teams can afford the present cap, and the others would fall way behind if it were raised much further.
Nicola made a strong point about the real news that day being buried by the government - the cancellation of the troubled home insulation scheme, and the news that the Rudd government would proceed with the only 38 of the 260 childcare centres promised at the 2007 election. Chris Uhlmann, the ABC's always excellent political editor, has
Australia's Balance of Power: Some interesting thoughts on the federal/state balance of power from Bob Hawke and John Howard, who at a charity function in Sydney. Hawke had refused have a televised debate with John Howard during the 1987 federal election. Both agreed that were Australia to start with a blank sheet of paper the states would not make it past the drawing board. Mr Howard's preference was for regional authorities. Bob Hawke thought the state boundaries should remain, but only for the purposes of the Sheffield Shield inter-state cricket competition and the State of Origin rugby league clash between New South Wales and Queensland.
Glamorous TV Life of slain mob boss: The alleged murder of the Underbelly mobster Carl Williams was another big story from Melbourne, even if some of you thought the media, including the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, lavished far too much attention on the alleged murder - fosterspiesandkangaroos, bardiera, treaclebeak, among others. Jonathan Holmes, the presenter of ABC's Media Watch programme, wrote
The Australian Ugliness: In all honesty, I thought that a post about an architectural writer from the early 1960s would get a handful of comments, but your response to Robin Boyd's The Australian Ugliness showed that it still has resonance. A number of you - Bren54, seajay 23 - wrote that Boyd did not have the right to lecture anyone about design because his own architecture was so ugly. The in Melbourne are arguably a case in point.
Most of you thought Boyd was better on the contradictions of the Australian character than the quality of Australian design. Me too. I also think that Australia has produced some of the best residential design in recent years, with architects like Peter Stutchbury leading the way. Admittedly, however, most of the best stuff is found on the coast on spectacular plots of land that few Australians will ever be able to afford.
ABC Radio National's Late Night Live had a terrific studio discussion on the book, .
The Acronym Country: Michael W proved he could speak such fluent acronym-ese that I suspect he may be Kevin Rudd's speech-writer - or at least channeling Kevin Rudd's speech-writer. Here's his comment: "In health the ALP is proposing that the AGPN transforms into a networks of PHCOs and work with the NHHN to provide GP and acute care services. This will be overseen by DOHA, but will leave SBOs out in the cold and it also has to win over the AMA and RACGP, not to mention the ANF. All this is dependent on getting COAG on board, of course." I also enjoyed Wollemi: "It's those pesky Australian flies, making bombing runs on open mouths 

Acronyms and abbreviations make it easier to keep them out."
There's nothing like Australia: Most of you highlighted the main flaw in Tourism Australia's latest campaign, which encourages Australians to reveal their favourite places or holiday spots. Presumably, the reason why they have become favourite places is because they are not inundated with tourists.
Finally, a few thoughts on who was up and who was down in April.
A good month for:
• The blog rarely has much good to say about Canberra but credit where credit is due - the Australian Capital Territory, the ACT, came for the Australian states and territories. New South Wales was number eight in the rankings. The full list, from top to bottom, was ACT, Western Australia is ranked in second position, followed by South Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and NSW.
• The Aussie dollar, much as it pains me to say so. It is creeping towards parity with the dollar.
• The Queensland Reds: the in-form side of the Super14 competition has reminded everyone that William Webb-Ellis picked up the ball and ran, rather than booting it down the field in the hope of getting a penalty at the breakdown.
A bad month for:
• Christine Nixon, the former Victoria Police chief , who admitted that she went out to dinner on the night of the Black Saturday fires rather than remaining at the command centre.
• Australian first-time house buyers. A new report suggests that one in three Generation Y prospective first-time house buyers will never be able to afford to get into the housing market.
• Those who believe Australia should have a Bill of Rights. The Rudd government says it for an Australian Bill of Rights
• The betting organisations that got stung by the punters who suddenly started placing what seemed like ludicrous bets that the Melbourne Storm would finish bottom of the league.
I'm 
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