What happened to WA?

Okay last night I was watching Australian Idol. Amazingly I did promise myself I wouldn't watch it this year, but other than Dancing with the Stars and a stupid renovation show there is not much else on a Sunday night. Of course if I had Foxtel, then I wouldn't be complaining, but as I don't have Foxtel, I have every right to complain about stupid free to air television.

So there I was watching Australian Idol, wondering exactly what the point of Marcia Hines is -I'm not entirely sure if she said anything more than 'Its a yes'. She's just a waste of space, at least Paula Abdul was funny (usually because she was drunk), Marcia is neither funny nor informative. Basically she's a waste of probably a very expensive salary.

I would also like to ask what happened to the WA auditions? All we got was Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and one or two WA singers who 'happened to be' in Sydney. What happened?

Don't we remember all those amazing WA competitors who went on to do nothing, we still want to see the amazing talent of our wonderful state. So somehow WA missed out, which confuses me as I'm pretty sure we are the Number 1 state on the basis of how much money we make for this country. But of course, because we don't have late night trading or Sunday trading, that makes us a waste of time state.

And on that note, what is wrong with us!!? Why are we so against late night trading? When I used to work (once upon a time) I would finish work around 6pm, head to the gym and then get home around 8pm. Sometimes I would be cooking and realise I needed milk/bread/tin of tomatoes, whatever. Or perhaps I had other plans on a Thursday night or Saturday, and wouldn't be able to get to the shops to do my food shopping. Well those plans usually have to be scrapped due to the lack of late night or Sunday trading in our sleepy little state. I was listening to talk back radio (because I'm 70) and most callers are against it, I just don't get it. Sure that sucks about small business, but I hate to say it - I don't care. Yes small business is important, but people having a work/life balance is also important. If that means I can do my shopping on a Wednesday night and have the weekend free to go down south or go to the Swan Valley with friends instead of fighting the rest of Perth to the last packet of two minute noodles available at Woolworths on a Saturday arvo, then I should be allowed that option!

The crazy thing is, I'm convinced every Perth person secretly loves extra trading hours, after all when Karrinyup or Garden City puts up the 'Trading this Sunday' sign, every mum, dad, grandma, teenager goes running. So why are we still fighting this ridiculous fight?

Speaking of sleepy, the other night my beloved and I had dinner with friends on a Thursday night, and by 9.30pm the restaurant was empty except for us, and the staff were politely hinting that they wanted us out, NOW!!

So I'm assuming that after 9.30pm everyone turns into pumpkins, and can't be seen out in public after this time. When did WA become so boring? I'm sure we weren't always like this, I'm sure we could go out and people would be socialising past 9.30pm on a week night. Due to our state being so sleepy and living in the 1960s (I say that based on daylight saving, trading hours and because I can) this means that not even our talented singers get a chance to show what they've got on Aus Idol.

I'm only hoping the same thing doesn't happen on So You Think You Can Dance. If it does, I'm getting out the paper and the ball point pen, and I'm writing a letter.