Monday, 8 February, 2021
Flood waters rise in WA; the island that turned purple; bumper day of sport; and here comes the Puppy Bowl!
LINKS
South Korea’s purple island: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/banwol-purple-instagram-island-south-korea/index.html
Check out our parent podcast and daily news email for adults: The Squiz: www.thesquiz.com.au
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Oh Western Australia! Did you do something to upset the universe? As if the double whammy of a COVID lockdown and devastating bushfires wasn’t enough – you’ve now gone and been hit by severe flooding.
Torrential rains in the north and mid-west of the state have seen the Gascoyne and Fitzroy Rivers both burst their banks, flooding many roads and homes and cutting off access to isolated outback communities.
The rains will help, at least, to dampen a fire that has been burning now outside Perth for a week – destroying 11,000 acres and 86 homes.
But as is often the way in this country of extremes in which we live, the rainfall is expected to intensify today, dumping up to 100 millimetres to many parts of Perth and down into the Margaret River region.
And it will be a similar story at the very top of Australia – across the Gulf of Carpentaria – where monsoon rains are expected to deliver a dumping. Which might not technically be a meteorological term – but you get my drift.
The monsoon is the name given to the wet season in tropical parts of the South and South East Asian region – which our northernmost coastline straddles.
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 South Korea – where an island has recently turned purple.
What?
The clever inhabitants of Banwol Island have painted every structure on their island purple … purple houses, purple shops, purple churches, purple telephone boxes – and even a purple bridge.
The people who live there came up with the idea as a way to get more tourists to their island.
Because South Korea has been in COVID lockdown – the locals have had to abandon their international travel plans and take holidays closer to home. And so, Banwol figured one way to stand out among the crowd – and attract that traveler who loves an Instagram moment – was to pain the joint purple.
And it’s worked a treat. Visitors to the island were up by 20% in the past six months. And because it’s so pretty: there’s a link in today’s episode notes to photos of the purple island.
SPORT TIME
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Hold onto your hats Squiz Kids … it’s been a big weekend in sport – and an even bigger day in sport is about to unfurl today – we’ve got a bit to get through.
First up: the Sydney Sixers turned in a blistering performance at the SCG on Saturday night to win the BBL Grand Final – making light work of their competition, the Perth Scorchers – winning by 27 runs and securing their third BBL title.
Next up: the Australian Open tennis tournament finally gets under way today. It’s a big deal because it will be the first tournament of its size anywhere in the world to play before a live crowd in what seems like forever. Our world number one, Ash Barty, won the Yarra Valley classic at the weekend, saying she’d eaten her brussel sprouts, and showing she is more than ready to be the first Australian female player to win the Aussie Open for 41 years. No pressure …
And finally: the other big sporting event you’ll hear a lot about today is the Super Bowl … easily the biggest event on the American sporting calendar. We’re talking NFL – sometimes referred to as American Football or gridiron – and this year it’s the Tampa Bay Buccaneers facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs. Game on!
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Speaking of the Super Bowl … for those not so interested in football, but maybe interested in cute puppies – which is like, everyone – the most anticipated pre-Super Bowl event will be taking place before the big game.
It’s called the Puppy Bowl – and basically entails 70 puppies chasing soft toys and one another around a miniature football field.
It’s all televised, all of the puppies are from rescue shelters, and by the end of the three hour TV event – which rates almost as highly as the Super Bowl – all of the puppies are adopted out to loving families.
There’s no video of it yet – but as soon as we track some down – hopefully by tomorrow’s edition – we’ll be sure to link to it.
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 …
- They’ve had a COVID lockdown, bushfires and now WA is having to deal with what new natural disaster?
- Name the current world number one women’s tennis player who’s hoping to break a long drought of home-grown players winning the Australian Open?
- Name one of the two teams playing in this year’s Super Bowl?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s February 8 … International Clean Out Your Computer Day … where we’re all encouraged to tidy up the mess inside all of our computers – the old files and photos and emails – lighten your computer’s load, people.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …Dylan from Jindalee, Morgan from Kingston, Leo from Mitchell Park and Benji from Warrill View.
Some belated birthday shout outs… Jemima from Inverell, Sebastian from Campbelltown and Aiden from Glen Innes.
And a special shout out today to Millie .. who sent a lovely email to Squiz Kids yesterday. Millie is from Glenferrie Primary School in Melbourne. She flew to China with her Mum and is now in hotel quarantine there for two weeks. She listens to Squiz Kids every day – and that helps pass some time – but she’s asking if any of you Squiz Kids out there have suggestions on what she might be able to do to pass the time while in quarantine – remembering that her hotel room is small. Any suggestions – email them through to [email protected] – and we’ll read them out.
Classroom shoutouts…Stage 2 Strawberries and Mrs Standen from Blue Mountains Grammar School, class 5/6 H at St Joseph’s in Mernda, Miss Lukong’s 6/7 class at Wallaroo Primary School, class 4T at Cherrybrook Public School, and Miss Luongo and 3B at All Hallows Catholic Primary School in Five Dock. Hope we got the details right this time Miss Luongo!
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Floods
- Ash Barty
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Kansas City Chiefs.