Friday, , 29 January, 2021
Olympic Games will go on … maybe; Chip-eating parrot too fat to fly; here comes the tennis; and all hail the Cairns croc man!
LINKS
Bud, the chip-loving parrot : https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-55823156
What’s Up Fox:
Reading: https://www.philip-pullman.com/
Listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy1rAn9MLtQ
Watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTZZnsxSmCE
Check out our parent podcast and daily news email for adults: The Squiz: www.thesquiz.com.au
Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en
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Squiz Kids is proudly supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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The games will go on ! That’s the message from the organisers of the Tokyo Olympics after they met this week to hose down rumours the coronavirus was going to de-rail the games for a second time.
COVID forced the postponement of the Games, which were meant to take place in the Japanese capital last July.
Organisers re-scheduled them for this coming July. But with the world still reeling from the coronavirus and question marks hanging over how quickly we can all be vaccinated and when we’ll all be allowed to travel overseas again, many have wondered whether the Games will go ahead at all.
One possible scenario is that the Games will happen – but no spectators will be allowed. Either way – the head of the International Olympic Committee has urged all athletes hoping to compete to continue their training.
So back to the pool, the gym, the running track you all go …
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They’re open, they’re closed, they’re open again … keeping up with which Australian borders are open is like keeping track of Tik Tok dances .. which is to say, practically impossible. But we were nevertheless excited at the announcement yesterday that Queensland was reopening its border to NSW from this coming Monday – and anyone from NSW in hotel quarantine would be allowed out. Hooray!
The border was closed to people from Greater Sydney just before Christmas – throwing lots of holiday plans into chaos. But now the border is opening again. Just as the holidays end. Hmm.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops. And today we’ve landed in England, where Bud, the chip-loving parrot is flying again after being put on a crash diet.
Bud’s owners were forced to put their pet parrot on a diet after she had developed such an addiction to chips, she’d gotten so fat she could no longer fly.
Bud’s owners said their feathered-friend – which has the hearing of a bat – could hear ‘a chip packet being opened from four miles away’ … which sounds not unlike my son.
And she’d become so overweight that when she tried to fly, she would fall with a thud to the ground.
Twelve months’ worth of strict veggie and bird-seed diet later, and Bud is slimmed down and ready to fly.
See? Everyone’s been packing on those COVID kilos.
There;s a link in today’s episode notes to a video of the slimmed down Bud. You’re welcome.
SPORTS TIME
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The Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne is set to start in just over ten days’ time … and while many international players have been in hotel quarantine in Melbourne, coming up with creative ways to keep fit in their bedrooms, one visiting French player has come up with a creative way to pass the time in lockdown.
World number 18, Edouard Roger-Vasselin has turned his hotel room into a chain reaction-machine – also known as Rube Goldman machines – and filmed the contraption for social media.
Using pillows and boxes and exercise equipment and tennis racquets and a ball – the tennis champ has set up a series of chain reaction experiments to help him pas s the time and count down the days to his release. I’ve stuck a link to the videos in today’s episode notes.
Meanwhile – the Melbourne Summer Series of tennis starts this Sunday, featuring top Aussie players Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios, with a bunch of mini-tournaments for the world’s top players to help them prepare for the Australian Open. Let the games begin!
SQUIZ KIDS SALUTES
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They sure do breed ‘em tough up in far north Queensland … take for example the man in his forties who yesterday rocked up to Cairns hospital after a 2 metre saltwater crocodile had attacked him while he was swimming in a suburban lake.
The saltie bit into the man’s skull while he was doing laps of the lake. According to police, the man put his hands into the croc’s mouth, pried it open to remove his head – pushed away the unwelcome reptile and swam to the side of the lake to get help.
Remarkably: the man only suffered cuts to his head, shoulder and hands. Which, given how recent studies have found crocodile jaws are the strongest of any living animal since the T-rex – either means the man has a very strong skull or is extremely lucky. Or both.
Local police have warned people not to swim in lakes where crocs are known to live. Which seems kind of obvious to me. But maybe that’s because I live in a city where even the sight of a cockroach is a cause for mild panic.
WHAT’S UP FOX?
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Every Friday we check in with Squiz Kids ambassador Flynn – known as teh Fox to his friends, to see what he’s been reading, listening to and watching.
And given that this is the first What’s Up Fox since the holidays – he’s got a list as long as his arm.
On his reading list this week has been Northern Lights — the first book in author Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials. It’s called Golden Compass in the US – and has been made into a really cool movie.
As for listening: he’s been getting his country-music on with Keith Urban’s duet with P!ink – On My Own.
And watching: well, this week, he’s been one of the millions watching YouTuber WadZee’s adventures in Minecraft – where this week he’s been building a pyramid in the desert. As you do.
And as ever: there are links to all of these cool things in today’s episode notes.
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- In which city in Japan are the re-scheduled 2021 Olympics supposed to take place?
- What sort of a bird is Bud the chip-obsessed feathered fiend from England?
- What reptile did a man in Cairns bravely fight off while swimming in a lake yesterday?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s January 29 …. Birthday of The Voice winner and singing sensation, Diana Rouvas and Aussie surfing champ, Stephanie Gilmore.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Zachary and Maya who are both from Adelaide.
And some belated birthday shoutouts… Audrey from Mt Crosby and Ruby from Clovelly.
And not forgetting of course those Squiz Kids who will be celebrating a birthday over the weekend … Lottie from Greenwich, Ava from Wangaratta, and Freya from Cairns.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Tokyo
- Parrot
- Crocodile