Danksta is back on his poop and scoop deck now!

I've been eking out a living by editing a 500-page slab of somebody else's emerging novel manuscript. However, that's another story for later.

Anyway, if you haven't heard the results of the election of our shiny new and apparently virginal regional council by now, then I don't really need to know where you've been, who you were embedded with, and what else you took along your wayward way.

When the now Trade Commissioner to Hollywood & Vine – remind me what was his name, and whatever did he used to do? – and one of his minor minions (sounds like Taser) announced council amalgamations last year, we all treated it as an April Fool's Day joke that had been perpetrated at least a fortnight after the actual date.

Well, the sky hasn't fallen in, the sun still comes and goes, the magnetic poles haven't swapped places, and life seems to be going on pretty much as per usual. That's in spite of the dire warnings of doom and gloom which were all run over by the amalgamation stampede!

Those who have opposed and still oppose amalgamation (myself among them) are either reluctantly adjusting to the new status quo, pretending that it didn't really happen, or plotting for a liberation that seems to be a long way off.

Ironically, the first Mayor of the Sunshine Coast – Big Bob – casts a bigger shadow than most and is now headquartered at the new inland capital of Nambour, aka Namberra.

We can all be assured that our new capital will soon be renamed “The Nam” once the real conflicts regarding rates, roads, rubbish, residential estates, rezoning and the rest of it all gets underway.

When you think of all the great capital cities of human activity, ask yourselves if Namberra is likely to appear anywhere on the list!

Because from now on, all you political reporters, lobbyists, vested interests, movers and shakers, fixers, favour seekers and number-crunchers out there will have to commute to Namberra if you want to keep your finger on the pulse, in the till, and off the record!

The mayor and the 12 new councillors and the 2700-odd employees of the SCRC have the challenging and complex task of looking after the civic and community needs of near enough to 300,000 of us for the next four years.

So while Danksta, with best wishes, congratulates the winners of the recent election, he also congratulates all those losers who can now return to their normal lives knowing that they won't have to cope with all that the victors already have to!

So far, in the early days of the new regime, Danksta hasn't spotted any new high-rise towers proliferating up Noosa way, nor has he noticed any overnight disappearance of the local fauna and flora. However, he does detect rather more rustling of late of what sounds like autumnal leaves but in actual fact is the preparatory shuffling of hefty DAs and plans for this, that, those, them and there too!

By the way, the multi-dimensional McMansion being built next door to the Danksta domicile is now at the fitout stage. Danksta has to wear sunglasses on his verandah nowadays due to the dazzling white-walled edifice which bounces the sun straight into his eyes.

Doesn't the neighbours' new house come with a remote control so that the brightness can be turned down?

Has anyone else noticed we're behaving more like a Sunshine Coast now that the poor excuse for a summer has passed us by at the cool distance that it did? Danksta is sure that it can't have been as cold and clammy as it often gets at our regional namesake in British Columbia.

Are we hankering for the clock to turn back, or have we set our watches to the calendar of the new council? Either the SCRC will be a spectacular success, an even more colossal failure, or a contradictory mixture of both rising and falling.

Let's just hope that the regional rearrangements still to come don't get too interesting to live with around here!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Namberra we go!