Hi All

Well there I was at Circular Quay looking for a working telephone. Did I mention that it was raining? Anways this scrawny little guy with tattooes came up to me. He told me that he was just let out of jail that day and was trying to make his way to his hometown, but was short $7.50 and asked if I could help him. He said he wasn't trying to scam me by pulling out a bunch of $50/$20 bills (like that meant anything). I told him that if he could find me a working phone I'd help. So I followed him and he took me straight to one that worked. Pretty good for someone just out of jail. Anyways I gave him $2. I think he was expecting $7.50. Made me wonder if maybe he was responsible for breaking the coin units on the other telephones.

The next 5 days I stayed at Paloma and Paul's place. I knew Paloma from my University days. I spent the time relaxing, going to the beach, swimming, snorkelling, BBQing and a bit of sightseeing. Paloma and Paul have two girls, Acacia (5) and Mia (3). Needles to say they were always up early usually around 7am, which meant I was usually up before 8.
Not what I had in mind on the "relaxing" part of my holidays (and also a little earlier than I normally get up out of bed :-) )

On Monday the 21st I went to Mosman (hey Bruce, right near Neutral Bay and the Oaks which I passed on the bus) to try and track down someone I had known in England. With no luck I decided to walk back to Manly (I did the manly walk) along a footpath that ran along the shore and through some woods. I thought I could do this pretty quickly. Bad idea. It took 3 hours and the last half hour was in the dark through the forest, walking through numerous freshly made spider webs. On the plus side I did see a large Lizard, Owl, a small marsupial, aborigonal rock carvings and what I thought was a fox.

On Tuesday, the next morning I left for what would be a whirlwind tour that would take me to Broken Hill, Silverton, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Melbourne, an outdoor pop festival, Brisbane and of course lots more weirdos and kooks.

Martin

PS. Since I don't wear a watch I usually depend upon public clocks for the time. %50 of all public clocks in Australia are either not working or are showing the wrong time. Another Fascinating Australian Fact.