Rules and regulations - Australian style

In one of my Sydney posts, I implied that the security arrangements in place at Australia's cricket grounds may be considered a tad over-zealous.  I will attempt to expand on this theory below.

One thing I have learnt on this trip is that Australians are very fond of their rules and regulations. Given that I live in Germany, you may have thought that this would not unduly bother me, or perhaps that I would not even notice. Both fair points. Maybe it's because of the laid-back reputation of Aussies that I found myself so surprised by this aspect of life down under. 

The main practical problem with the security arrangements was that they were so different at each ground. Hence, having got used to one set of more or less draconian rules at, say, Adelaide, you then travelled to Perth and found a completely different set of regulations in place.

Here are some random examples:

- In Adelaide, it was forbidden to take an umbrella into the ground, presumably on the basis that it was offensive to South Australians to imply that it may rain during their summer (it did – very heavily)

- In Perth, I was not allowed to take an empty plastic water bottle into the ground, although a full one would have been fine and water fountains were provided within the ground for free refills

- In Perth, the security guards initially removed a middle aged Barmy Army supporter for wielding two small signs made of a dangerous cardboard-like substance and bearing the abusive slogans "AV IT" and "NO NONSENSE" (in this case, they relented ten minutes later)

- In Melbourne, standing up to cheer on your team very loudly seemed to be tolerated if you were a visiting English tourist with lots of Aussie dollars to spend but not if you were a local and wearing a conical green and gold hat (on second thoughts, this rule was fine)

- In Sydney, it was not permitted to wear a pair of sunglasses when queuing for a drink - indeed, a very strict lady was employed to ensure this did not happen and appeared to have no other useful function but this

- In Sydney, my Barmy Army friend Gabie was required to provide evidence of her age in order to buy a meat pie, even though the pie in question did not appear to contain any alcohol, drugs or tobacco

- Once again in Sydney, it was forbidden to purchase two lagers and one cider in the same round, even though you could buy up to four drinks of either variety at the same time – one could only conclude that there must have been some bad experiences with the illicit mixing of snakebites during play.

And would you believe, while I have been writing the above, Jayne has returned from some last minute shopping in Sydney airport and reported that she was required to produce her passport in order to purchase a jar of vegemite.

What's with all the crazy rules, guys?