Gold Coast notebook - of syringe tomato and chilli sauce

Of syringe sauce, ‘no needle’ policy

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The Commonwealth Games Federation is enforcing a “no needles” policy here that seeks to prevent athletes from injecting themselves with banned performance enhancing substances. In other words, the Athletes’ Village is meant to be a “syringe-free” address, no wonder Indian doctor Amol Patil was reprimanded for incorrectly disposing a syringe he’d used. Well, athletes, docs and coaches would be quite uncomfortable carrying take-away food from the “Brooklyn Depot” restaurant in downtown Gold Coast. Here, they give out tomato and chilli sauce packaged in syringes that diners use to spice up their beef burgers. A fine line indeed.

Organisers own up to book error

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Organisers of the Commonwealth Games have owned up to a mistake in the Games’ official programme in which England is indicated as being “an African nation.” The Games’ chief executive Mark Peters said the error had been cause by the late entry of The Gambia, which has been readmitted as a member of the Commonwealth Games Federation. The programme lists the “England” capital as Banjul and says “England” made its first appearance at the Commonwealth Games in 1930 in Hamilton. Peters said they had offered to reprint the programme with corrections, but the England delegation “was understanding.”

Australia’s cruelty to kids

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An Australian company that’s been offering “innovative” yoga classes using baby goats is being charged with cruelty towards animals. Kindifarm Animals has been charged in court by the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals with mistreating the animals that are said to be severely malnourished. One kid was so starved and malnourished that it had to be “put to rest.” Kindifarm Animals is yet to enter any pleas to the charges with the baby goats said to be “severely malnourished” and suffering from intestinal malfunctions. The case will be mentioned at a local court here on May 2.

Innovation’s the way for ‘adult services’

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Female escort services dominate the classified sections of Queensland daily newspapers. The “girls of the night” have innovative descriptions for their services, with some calling themselves “sexy kittens” and others “raunchy cougars” in the ‘adult services’ section of the dailies. Another goes by the name “Mature affairs.” One group, that claims it was founded in 1972, published an interesting tagline to their “Touch of Class” name. It goes: “Touch of class: Recognise the name? Ask your dad, or your dad’s dad.” I’m curious to know who would dare to ask…