Last night, we had brilliant people over for dinner. Journalists, public speakers, writers from Australia and Ireland. The conversation was witty, smart and political – decrypting gender politics, social media usage, and journalistic expertise. Yet I remember, as it happens, finding that something in the conversation was strange. This morning, I realised what it was: nobody talked about foreign affairs. The focus of the conversation was on Australia. Overseas events was not where everyone targetted the power of their brains. This was very unlike a French dinner conversation with a similar bunch of people, where a long stretch would focus on Russia, the United States, Isreal or China. Now I wonder, is that a general Australian trait, just a single occurrence, or something I’ve made up retrospectively? I shall observe, and investigate.