These kids jump in on 11 October to start their junior life saving season.

As a Canadian from the frozen prairies I’m amazed by Australians’ abilities in the water.  They dive into the sea on the coldest days, battle through the biggest waves, can body surf, body board, and surf. Tens of thousands of them volunteer to be Surf Life Savers – the people who haul beach goers out of rips, waves and other hazards.

For safety and fun, they start them early on this giant island country. Kids as young as six join junior surf life saving clubs. Called “Nippers”, these kids learn how to swim hundreds of metres in the ocean and play it safe on the beach.  It’s an immensely well-organized program which includes thousands of parent and water safety volunteers. And unlike the Canadian national pastime, hockey, which involves ungodly early mornings and hundreds of dollars of equipment, kids here need a bathing suit and cap and a ride to the nearest beach.

I caught up with the Coogee Minnows on their official “First Day at the Beach” – October 11 2009. This Flickr link includes photos from the day, where the kids sign up for the club and of course, jump in.

Back in the day, diplomatic messages were sent by telegraph, post, or were hand carried. Official typed reports would be commented on in pencil in the margins – with special symbols to indicate who at what level had made what comment. The process might take weeks or even months.  Unauthorized people, like the general public or historians, would be granted access to these archived notes years later.

Enter the tweet.

I recently sent the following one:

Has anyone noticed how @Dipnote posts about Hilary have multiplied by many factors since last week’s speculation?

I was referring to the fact that tweets about Secretary Hillary Clinton posted by the US Department of State Twitter account had increased, quite dramatically, over the week prior. This increase followed news and analysis suggesting Clinton was being shunted to the sidelines.  Suddenly @Dipnote was offering blow-by-blow accounts of Clinton’s movements and speeches during her travels in Asia. It was just something I noticed.

Within four minutes of tweeting I received the following Direct Message:

dipnote: DipNote posts usually increase while the Secretary is traveling. Speculation?

Let’s be clear. I am not a well-known analyst. I have 53 followers – absolutely  insignificant in the twittersphere. I’m not even American. But there was clearly someone in the @Dipnote office, in the middle of the night, monitoring and responding to anything written about Secretary Clinton, including from people who live thousands of kilometres from the United States.

Receiving @dipnote’s tweet felt somewhat like being in a spy movie, where a character gets lightly roughed up and warned on the way to the toilets at the theatre. Would I dare tweet about Secretary Clinton again? On further thought, did I  think I would ever, ever, write a sentence with the words “tweet” and “Secretary” in it?

Yes, it’s a new diplomatic era. And it made me wonder if or how other foreign offices are using Twitter.

A quick search uncovers some interesting findings amongst the G8:

British Foreign Office: Tweet  @ForeignOffice. There’s good stuff here including  information and links relevant to many types of people. The latest speeches of Foreign Minister David Miliband; travel advice in light of the latest explosions in Spain; a new World Cup blog. Follow them and they’ll follow you back. They do #FollowFriday too. (6,200 following, 5,900 followers so far)

Canadian office of Foreign Affairs and International Trade: Do not tweet.  Minister Lawrence Cannon has an unfortunate non-related Twittersake  -  @Swaggsetter94

French Foreign Affairs office: Does not tweet.  Tweets! I stand corrected, by @ForeignOffice and @FranceDiplo, which does in fact post regular updates. There are links to new information about H1N1, about travel, about Minister Bernard Kouchner’s speeches and movements, and updates on new Twitter accounts linked to various French diplomatic offices. C’est cool.  Following 215, with 1905 followers. Otherwise, the website presents straightforward, traditional information on its media site, making the Twitter account a bit harder to find.

German Federal Foreign Office. Does not tweet. Nice modern English website though – with a tagcloud of current issues on the homepage.

Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The Minister @FrancoFrattini  tweets regularly in English and Italian. There is news of the Minister’s travels and travel stats, the G8, links to newspaper interviews and speeches, his participation in the Baseball World Cup.  Despite the efforts, he has just 191 followers (Italians are not that into Twitter evidently) but the strange thing is, he follows just three.  @BarackObama (ok), @JoeBiden (hasn’t been updated since August 2008) and @ClintonNews (an unofficial account of Clinton news). About two weeks ago Minister Frattini was also following a fake David Miliband account.  No longer. Makes me wonder if this is a real account.

Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Do not tweet. The website, at least in English, offers links to .pdf documents.  Dull, sorry.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nyet.

United States Department of State: Yes, tweeting (and responding!) on @Dipnote. Followers: 6,889; Following 4,188. They tell you who is on duty  (as I write this, it’s Daniel).  Tweets include useful information, such as links to the official blog of US foreign policy positions which includes photos and video, briefing notes on current affairs, and indeed, information about Secretary’s Clinton’s travels.

The Secretary is heading to several African countries now. This is obviously just speculation, but expect tweets about Clinton to increase this week.

I used to love the Amazing Race.  The demanding  physical exertion! The world travel! The cleverly matched contestants!  But tonight I turned it off. The second I heard one of the competitors spit “she’s such a frickin’ bitch” I was outta there.

Where is MasterChef when I need it?

Sure, I’m happy to have my evenings back again. Happy to stop dashing to the kitchen during “what’s new” commercials to check the corn, or flip the chops (MasterChef did not improve weeknight meals in our household). But the finale of MasterChef has left a television void in its lovely wake. Why did I, and people all over Australia, love it so?

Where do I begin?

For one, the hosts.  They are experts. They can really cook. I’ve eaten at Melbourne’s Press Club – even the vegetarians go home happy.

Yes they could be crotchety. The “yow” in George’s “Your time starts now”, Matt’s tut at a too-thick short crust, Gary’s decisively dismissive “Are you happy with that? I’m not.”  Yikes.

They had healthy egos. Take Matt for one. Who was this guy with the cravat and mannered foppish hair?  But listen to him  - that beautiful dragon’s den elegy from the Hong Kong bridge gave me a few chills.  And he’s not afraid of a silly a-Poh-calyptic pun now and again either.

They’re all big softies. When Gary turned away from the camera to compose himself to congratulate Julie,  when Justine’s elimination reddened Matt’s eyes, when George said (he did say it right?)  “I love you man,” to Chris – all proof that these guys’ hearts are like melted butter.

(Hey producers – Sarah was all class – smart, generous, and I think she’s got a good palette. Make her a judge next season!)

The food. From lamb to bug bisque, sambal petai to pig’s head to pizza, MasterChef brought an incredible range of flavours into the lounge rooms of Australia.  And they put it all online!  I will never make a croqenbouche, nor will I be serving lamb’s brain cereal anytime soon, but if I wanted to, I almost could (almost) thanks to the MasterChef website.

The celebrity chefs and guests. High rollers, and again, good follks! Emmanuelle Stroobant is the cutest Belgian I’ve ever seen. Matt Moran- another welcome Matt.    Margaret Fulton. Well, what’s to be said?  An incredible role model.

And then, the contestants. Sometimes, they got scrappy. “I couldn’t believe it when she didn’t follow the recipe!” or “I don’t think Chris is the strongest contestant here anymore.”  (who WAS Sam talking about anyway?) Or, “Well, I really think X’s time is up here.”  But hey, it’s reality television.  You don’t want the cooking show to give you a cavity.

But no one in MasterChef ever, at least on TV, called anyone else a “frickin’ bitch.”

The contestants supported each other. Maybe it was a directive from the producers, but ya know, I believed Julie when she said she felt awful that Justine had to leave. I believed Sam when he was sad that Poh mistook faro for barley. (And by the way, why didn’t they ever go for the obvious in those sudden death taste tests. Thyme? Port? Dang! What about pepper? Butter? Salt? Garlic? Next time, do the basics first!!)

I believed Justine when she said she wanted to be there, because she really wants to be a chef (not, like on other reality cooking shows, because she wants to see the others broil in their own ovens).

And wow, did I believe Julie when she said “When people eat in my restaurant, I want them to feel they have been loved.” Has anyone ever said anything so beautiful, so heartfelt, on Top Chef?

MasterChef has all the right ingredients. Good challenges, good food, good people.

The only place to adjust the recipe? A few more good women. Put Sarah at the judge’s table. And please find a few more women celebrity chefs.  Otherwise, count me in for 7 pm in April 2010.