Thursday, 29 October, 2020
Trick or treating 2020-style; the egg-stealing penguins; Cricket season confirmed; and The Hulk to the rescue!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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With Halloween only two sleeps away, and trick-or-treating top of mind for many little Aussies, the state governments of our wide brown land have released guidelines to make sure we all celebrate Halloween in a COVID safe way.
From WA to NSW, Queensland to Tassie – the wearing of masks is recommended wherever possible. Which should be pretty easy given lots of costumes come with masks … Social distancing while hitting up your neighbours for chocolate is also recommended – especially in Victoria, which is just emerging from a second lockdown – with authorities there advising not to knock on the doors of people you don’t know.
And as for handing out lollies … hand sanitiser is a must, according to the guidelines, with households advised to steer away from offering communal bowls of sweets and hand out individually wrapped treats instead – with NSW Health going so far as to recommend ‘hanging treats over the fence or on the front gate’ for trick-or-treaters to collect as they pass. A lolly fence .. how cool is that?
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You’ve heard of late night shopping, right? When the shops stay open to 9pm. Well some Melburnians have taken it one step further: marking the end of months of lockdown by rushing to the shops at midnight.
A bunch of restrictions were lifted in Melbourne at midnight on Tuesday: which meant many shopping centres could open for the first time in months.
And so excited were Melburnians to get their Kmart on, there was a midnight rush to shopping centres.
Bars and restaurants around the city also reported a rush of locals, excited to finally be out of the house. While hairdressers and beauticians had queues of people snaking out the door, keen to sharpen up their look. Must be nice to be out again, Melbourne.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops. And today, we’ve landed in the Netherlands – in Europe – where a pair of boy penguins in a zoo are causing a stir after having booted out of their nest a couple of girl penguins.
How rude!
The drama unfolded last week when the male penguins apparently decided they wanted to be dads, and so forced out of a nesting box two female penguins who were busily hatching a pair of eggs.
Zookeepers though are not worried about the eggs – confident that the boy penguins will take good care of them.
In the penguin world, it’s not unusual for pairs of boys or pairs of girls to band together to hatch an egg and become parents.
Two years ago at the Sea Life Aquarium in Sydney, two male penguins got together to hatch a female chick. Have you seen how cute those fluffy penguin chicks are? I’d sit on an egg for a couple of months to get one too.
SPORTS TIME
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The schedule for a summer of men’s cricket was released yesterday – and after months of uncertainty, because: corona – we’re in for a fair old whack of the popular summer sport.
After spending two weeks in quarantine in Sydney, India will pad up to play a series of One Day Internationals in Sydney and Canberra – starting November – closely followed by a T20 series, and finally, a series of Test matches, kicking off in Adelaide , swinging through Melbourne, Sydney and finishing in Brisbane. There’s no games for Perth though, and that’s made cricket officials there pretty unhappy.
And in exciting State of Origin news … a popular fast food chain that sells fried chicken – no prizes for guessing which one – yesterday announced it would be selling Blue and Maroon chicken burgers in the lead up to next Wednesday’s clash. As in, the buns are blue and maroon in colour. I think I’ll pass.
SQUIZ KIDS SALUTES
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And it’s a big Squiz Kids salute to Tasmanian librarian, Tyron Waugh … who donned a superhero costume for Book Week last week – and ended up saving a life. For real.
Tyron is a librarian in Burnie, in northwest Tassie – and he rocked up to work dressed as the Hulk. Because: book week.
While book week celebrations were unfurling inside, a man suffered a heart attack outside the library, and the Hulk swung into action.
The father of two performed CPR – which is a life-saving procedure – on the man and managed to keep him alive until the ambulance arrived.
The moral of this Book Week story? Librarians are heroes and books give you superpowers.
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- In which European country have a pair of male penguins invaded a girl penguin’s nest?
- Which country is coming to play Australia in cricket this summer?
- Which superhero was Tasmania’s super-librarian Tyron Waugh dressed as when he helped save a life this week?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s October 29 … birthday of Wallabies captain, Michael Hooper, Broncos centre Kotoni Staggs – and, also of the humble biro .. that ball point pen you may be holding between your fingers in class today turns 75 today.
It’s also 57 sleeps til Christmas … but who’s counting?
Plus it’s a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Will from Sydney, Liam from Broken Hill, Shaurya from Cranbourne, Jayhaan from St Helens Park, Alicia from Abbotsford, Olivia and Dakota from Inverell, Otto from Cammeray, Jayden from Sheoak Grove, Krtvi “Krit-vi” from Epping, Sadie from Perth, and Hamish, who is from Melbourne but is listening to us while travelling through Europe and will be spending his birthday in the Loire Valley in France. Have a bottle of Sancerre for me, Hamish …
Today’s belated birthday shoutout goes to… Anna from Woongarrah
Happy birthday one and all!
Classroom shoutouts… 3/4 P at Menzies Creek Primary School, class 6 Gold at Saint Mary’s Catholic Primary School, 5/6 G at St Brigid’s Primary School in Healesville, Year 4 at St Thomas’ Primary School in Willoughby, and the “Thriving 5’s” from Our Lady of Lourdes School in Nollamara, Perth, where their teacher Mrs Wardrope celebrated a birthday yesterday.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- The Netherlands
- India
- The Hulk