Big Bang? more like ginger nuts.

I have a theory as to why all the dinosaurs became extinct, forget the Big Bang theory.  My guess is they were all doing really well until one night after a shopping trip to Coles in Sydney mummy dinosaur brought home a packet of "Arnotts Ginger Nut Biscuits". They promptly had a biscuit each and broke all their teeth, thus rendering them unable to eat their staple diet of Roo meat, thin end of the wedge as they got passed around the rest of the family I reckon. Those people at Arnott's have some explaining to do I can tell you.

They make 'em tough in Australia :-)

Dirty Profits.

Mid afternoon in Sydney, I sit here tapping away at my laptop, fully immersed in my writing, outside people are passing by taking dogs for walks, taking photo's of the sea or doing everything else from jogging to shopping, this is obviously the tourist side of Sydney, as lovely as Manly is it is so obviously slanted towards the regular visits from the world wide community. I being one of those intruders or welcome guests whatever your slant is on my visit I have noticed the vast majority are of Asian origin, without type casting them the clicking of camera's is a sure fire bet that another group of such travellers is just around the corner. I haven't quite worked out why the vast majority travel in groups, it must be something that they all feel very comfortable with and I do chuckle to myself that if they haven't got a camera to their eye they have an iphone to their ear!.
It is harsh to judge one specific culture as we are all different in our ways and mannerisms and Australia is a very diverse country, not as much as the UK but it welcomes all manner of ethnicity with open arms much as we do. I watched the "football" last night, I was told i must support "the blues" (NSW) as I am in that province, the Queenslanders were definitely the enemy for the night as we shouted and screamed at the game on channel 9, the outcome was a wonderful victory for NSW the first since 2008 i was assured, so perhaps i am a lucky talisman!, it would be good to think so.
I have enjoyed the visit here so far as most of you guys that follow my blog are blatantly aware, I find the people engaging and honest and the city is eminently cleaner and less hassle than London. That said they are a world apart and such differences are to be expected. London is manic, Sydney is busy.

One thing that has stuck out since my visit is the Australian's view on customer service. They cannot do enough to make sure what you buy is what you are looking for and that it serves the purpose of the initial purchase. Take for instance Vodafone UK versus Vodafone Au. You would think the two companies would be very much an entity, but you would be wrong if you thought that was a fact. I was contacted by Vodafone UK while here as my bill had risen above its normal level, not a problem as before i left I rang Vodafone UK and told them where i was going and set up new tariff's for being in Oz and as a result i continued with my phone as normal. After 2 weeks here i received a text to say my bill was unusually high and could i ring them for security purposes. This i duly did and yes my bill was unusually high and I was very annoyed.

On speaking to the service manager of Vodafone UK he blamed Vodafone au for the hike in charges, "They set the tariff over there so if its £1 a minute that's what we have to pay" i was reliably informed, so i asked what was the best way round  this issue as obviously i didn't want to incur more senseless charges,
"well you could buy a cheap phone for 70 dollars and use that while you are over there or perhaps unlock your phone and put an au sim in its place".  OK, fine, "why didn't you tell me this in the first place? i am an old established Vodafone customer and i think you have advised me very poorly" I quipped,
"Well sir we are here to make a profit and it's like us telling you to go to 02, we would never do that, our company is here to make money".  That was quite a frank yet astonishing admission that this huge corporation was solely focused on what it could MAKE out of the customer rather than what it could DO for the customer while retaining a respectable but not disgusting profit.
Thus advised by Vodafone UK i tramped down to the local Vodafone shop here in Manly and vented my frustration at the way Vodafone had lulled me into such a huge bill, despite my taking care of my visit by ringing them beforehand and ensuring the charges would be sensible. The shop assistant listened and asked if my iphone was unlocked, i replied "I am not sure", he took the phone and looked at it and said I am sorry sir the phone is locked into Vodafone UK, we don't sell locked phones here in Oz it's a question of choice for the consumer, we try and give them a good service so they won't go elsewhere. "Well that's mighty noble of you" says I "but its Vodafone au that set the huge tariff i have been paying, i was informed by Vodafone Uk"
"actually sir that's incorrect, your phone is locked in with the UK and we are the same company in reality so they are not correct in that assumption, plus the fact if you had been dealt with in that manner here it would go to senior management and they would immediately drop the size of the bill"
"pardon?"
"Look sir as a customer we do everything we can to ensure your experience with Vodafone au is a pleasant one, yes we wish to make a profit but we wouldn't charge £1.50 a minute and expect to keep the customer"
"but the service manager in the UK told me you were here to make a profit and that you had set the rates so high that is why the bill is so large"
"Well all I can say sir is you go back to Vodafone UK and take that up with them as that is just completely untrue".
Now, correct me if i am wrong but the theme that ran through that conversation was one of customer first in Australia.
Needless to say I am as yet not finished with Vodafone UK, I think they have a lot of explaining to do and I think a good inwards look at their company policy, profit is one thing, but even Dick Turpin wore a mask and pistols so you had a fair chance of spotting him.

Sense Of Duty book 2 snippet. (unedited)

Sam reached for his trilby style hat and that was always followed by a huge rattle of legs from under the kitchen table as the dogs rushed to be the first to get outside, but this morning was different, there was no noise. The dogs had been tied up last night as they were being such a nuisance in the barn, a point that both Jake and Sam were now all too aware of, the worry, if it was there, was unspoken..

Sam climbed the stairs of the old farmhouse and stood on the landing, he looked out of the landing window for a better view of where the snow was thickest and which window would be the best to climb out of. In the end Sam entered Jakes bedroom and opened up the window, he climbed on to the ledge and threw his shovel on to the snow drift about 6 ft below him, before he jumped Sam looked out in to the yard as his eyes were now acclimatised to the darkness of the early dawn, it was a sight that would stick with Sam a lifetime, the farm was under the thickest drifts of snow he had seen in his 40 years of being on the hill side, his farm was almost unrecognisable, like a wilderness, a wasteland, frozen in time and devoid of life, it frightened the big man but he was never going to let that fact be known, least of all to a young seven year old patiently waiting in the kitchen below.

Leaping from the bedroom window was a very surreal moment for Sam, but thankfully the snow had frozen on the surface, he didn’t drop right through it so he started to dig feverishly to the door below, the glow from the kitchen was lighting the snow up giving off a strange unearthly glow it seemed almost a comfort rather than the ever present peril of a huge drift. It wasn’t long before Sam had reached  the door, an overjoyed Jake opened the door to let his dad take the last few steps into the house, Jake immediately ran to get his hat and coat, his boots were already on the moment his Dad had left the table!

“Grab my hand son,” Sam said in a strong voice,

 “We will go and get those dogs loose, they will sure to want their bloody breakfast by now”

With that Jake grabbed his father’s hand and the two walked up the steep drift that had lent itself against the house overnight like some monster consuming its prey slowly but ever surely.

Once away from the drift against the house the snow was down to about four feet deep and less in places, still very deep but something the two had seen before on this barren hillside farm, so they both began to feel a little better at the situation they found themselves in, as they walked across the unlit farmyard they both glanced back at the farm house almost at the same time, it looked so tiny up against the huge drift that covered almost two thirds of the building,

“Hell Jake, it must have been a bit rough out here last night, let’s hope the sheep have got in somewhere out of sight”

As the two walked through the deep snow in the farm yard they waited to hear the barking and rattling of chains that would follow the moment either one of their two voices was heard, but there was nothing it was so strange by its absence, Sam could feel something wasn’t right.

“Strange we haven’t heard the two dogs Dad” said Jake in a quiet voice,

“Aye it is lad, they are probably asleep on the straw we put down for them, lazy buggers” he quipped trying to reassure Jake.

But that reassurance was as ill-timed as it was misplaced, for as the two men rounded the corner of the barn they could see nothing of where the two dogs had been tied up overnight.

Without a word the two ran to the where the small outbuilding had been where the dogs were tied up and started to dig through the mound of snow that had replaced the small building, but alas it was all too clear that it was a vain hope, the sheer weight of overnight snow had gathered on the old rickety shed and collapsed it on top of the two dog’s with a crushing weight that no such animal could hope to ever survive, both dogs lay stiff and frozen under the debris, there was nothing either of them could do.

“Damn it!” Sam said as he pulled the dogs from their temporary frozen grave,

“This is going to make the day a damn sight harder, no bloody dogs!”  the big man trying to separate his grief of losing two of his best friends, “get a sack from by the barn lad we will bury them later when we get back from bringing the ewes back in, we can’t mess with it now”

Jake did as he was told, he looked at the two dogs as his Dad pulled the sack up and put them in one by one, it was the first time Jake had seen an animal he loved dead, he was used to seeing sheep and cattle dead in the fields, he had grown up with it, but the 8 and 9 year old dog’s had been there before even he had and the boy struggled to hold the tears back..

“Never mind piping your eye Jake, it’s just bloody sheepdogs, we will get two more, these two were bloody useless anyway”  Sam said in a matter of fact way, but trying very hard not to show the sorrow that overwhelmed the big man at losing two damn good sheepdogs and even worse a couple of good friends.

“Right, let’s feed the ewes in the barn first me lad” Sam said almost as soon as the top of the sack was tied, “then we have a bit of work to do to fetch those other sheep in now we haven’t any dogs to do the legwork for us”

Jake was still trying to take it all in as he went along the pens of sheep with fresh dry hay in bundles feeding expectant and now very noisy sheep, Jake seeing the two dog’s in that way was a harsh reality call for such a youngster but he was born on the land so he would soon adjust, it’s the only way the families survived on these hillsides.

Small excerpt from as yet unamed novel..

The morning of the will reading Marie dressed in her very best clothes and some new heels she had managed to squeeze out of the family budget, Mandy had seen the last one’s off after a heavy night out so she was very careful where she wore them. Arriving at the downtown office she was made to wait in a small side room while the solicitors grabbed all the paperwork, she was then led through to a large office where the solicitor Anthony Simpkiss was waiting for her, he was sat behind a huge desk in the middle of an old Victorian style room with law books catalogued and shelved like a local Town library, he stood up and shook her hand across the desk and immediately began to open up a folder in front of him.

“Right Mrs Davies I see you are the sole beneficiary to the last will and testament of Mrs Felicity Margaret Summers, this being the case could you supply me with the paperwork my office asked you to bring along with you, just to check you are who you say you are of course”

Marie handed all the paperwork across the desk including passport and birth certificate,

“That’s fine, all in order, now I gather that you are currently residing in the deceased’s property at 57 Malin Rd is that correct?”

“Yes that’s correct” Marie said feeling more like a school girl in the Headmasters office than she ought to have done.

“Right the will is quite short in it’s requirements obviously cremation and her ashes scattered on the heath land where she loved to walk, I presume that has been carried out to satisfaction?”

Marie just nodded and quietly said “yes”

“Right well the property at 57 Malin Road is actually subject to a garnishee order I am afraid Mrs Davies, it basically means that it is being seized on behalf of H M Treasury in lieu of unpaid taxes, so I am afraid it will be put up for auction as soon as time permits, this will probably be within the next 21 days”

“B-but it’s Mother’s house, was Mothers house, she lived in it for 40 years!” Marie exclaimed,

“That is in fact the case Mrs Davies but your mother had also guaranteed a tax debt on the property and there is a substantial amount of money left to pay on that debt, in fact Mrs Summers was in possession of the Garnishee order before her untimely death, she had been served the papers 10 days before, so I am afraid there is little one can do, the house will go to auction within the next three weeks and that is the fact of the matter”

“How much does she owe the tax man?!” Marie said in a quivering voice,

“well she doesn’t actually owe the tax man her previous errr boyfriend did, he has failed to keep payment up on an agreement with HMRC and I am afraid your mother guaranteed the agreement with her property, the amount is around £175,000 as it stands, plus accumulative interest of course, I am afraid it’s a substantial amount and once our fees have been taken into account and that of the tax office you may even be a little out of pocket I am afraid Mrs Davies, not the sort of news I suppose you wanted to hear?”

Marie sat stunned in the chair, she could hear Mr Simpkiss but she wasn’t listening, her mother had guaranteed a debt on her property for her previous boyfriend who was a complete layabout, Marie had never liked him and she was overjoyed when Felicity had given him his marching orders over twelve months previous, but it all made sense why she had done so, Marie couldn’t help wondering if all the stress of this had brought on her Mothers early untimely demise, she was harbouring all this and never said a word, Marie was stunned, speechless.

“Would you like a cup of tea perhaps” Mr Simpkiss asked,

“You do look a little pale, perhaps if I called my secretary she could give you some time in the side office to gather your thoughts, if I can just get you to sign these documents before you do so we can finish up with the formalities”

Marie stood up, she grabbed the gold embossed pen out of the solicitor’s hand, she signed in three different places and placed the pen back on to the desk in front of him,

“Thank you” she said and with that she turned and walked out,

“Oh err we will be in touch!” he shouted as she left,

“I am sure you bloody will” Marie muttered under her breath as the secretary led her to the outside door....

$36.98 is actually $37.00 ok?.

The piper always has a price to pay. Words that many of us I am sure will be familiar with. As you work through life and enjoy moments that you look back on with such fondness it can often seem that way.
My guess is it has more to do with our own human frailties than any mythical piper, we look for misery far easier than we look for happiness.
I can almost hear you wondering what path of this wonderful life of mine you think I am walking down this afternoon, well I guess being in the apartment all day writing leaves you open to being a little retrospective and less up beat than you would normally be, I think perhaps a little sunshine on my collar would have made a world of difference, but time, money and books wait for no man and I am no exception, I am here to do a task and it will be done.
That all said, it would be a shame to behave in such a way when in reality I am overjoyed to be out here in Sydney following what can only be described as a calling to write, it has been a long time since I was able to enjoy such artistic pleasures in such a bountiful amount, usually i am snatching what time I have to reverberate just before bedtime, so having a few weeks to follow my calling is truly a Godsend and I am making the most of it. I am still in love with Sydney even though it may or may not have missed me today, I find the Australian people a delight to chat to and be around, there are also many Brits over here working in bars and the like and they too talk of the wonderful attitude the locals have towards outsiders.

I do at this very conjuncture however, have an apology to make to one Sydney wine merchant. I have to admit I am hopeless with foreign currency and i usually end up just giving the retailer notes rather than trying to work the change out, so much so that my bedside cabinet is about to drop through the wooden floor under the weight of 50 cents and one and two dollar coins. Anyway, i grabbed a bottle of wine and my usual poison a bottle of Scotch and proceeded to the checkout, she rang the till up at $36.98 and said "that's $37.00 please", now me being a Brit i looked at the numbers on the till and said without thinking for a split second,
"That's $36.98 ?"
She said nothing and I handed her two 20 dollar notes, she then gave me three dollars and five cents change, which I still hadn't twigged, until i left the shop and my Oz guide here burst into fits of laughter.
I couldn't see the joke until it was explained that the money over here is rounded up to the nearest, in other words 98 is one dollar, 93 is 90 cents, "no one ever bothers with the 2 or 3 cents", well that is unless they hail from sunny Shropshire where every penny counts!. Another fine lesson learnt and another milestone for what is becoming an eyeopening trip culture wise !
 

It's Garbage.

It's a fine dry bright sunny morning here in Sydney, in contrast to the monsoons we had yesterday, the garbage trucks here in Manly are only outnumbered by the surfers and it's set to be a fine day here in my albeit temporary paradise.
On the subject of garbage trucks (tenuous i know but bear with me) I cant remember being in any city that has more, every other vehicle is a city municipal garbage truck and I think i have worked out the reasoning behind it (no surprises there then, here it comes). You see, these trucks collect the garbage real early, now when i say early we are talking five or six in the morning, so if you have a job with those kind of hours my bet is that you will be knocking off some time around ten or eleven which would get you ideally placed for a full day on the beach with the surf board. So its logical to assume therefore is it not that, not only is the head of Sydney Municipals a keen surfer but he is also looking after the lads as it were by employing five times more garbage trucks than actually needed so that his surfing buddies all get to follow their dream of "The Big One" (wave that is) while still holding down a respectable job.
Now, me being a more than your average sized pale skinned Brit male with a penchant for steak and cheesecake, not all on the same plate of course, (unless its happy hour) I can now relax and feel a little smug knowing that all those God like figures out there with bronzed tans and six packs are all actually garbage men.
All of a sudden I hear wails of "so what is wrong with garbage men?" from every distant corner of the globe, (ok, a couple of you might get offended) well actually nothing, I have many friends in Blighty that collect the bins and are well paid and enjoy their work, but that is not the point here, I am looking for a chink in the armour of these super fit, six pack wearing sport crazy individuals who tackle waves higher than i would feel safe climbing a ladder to and if all i can find on them is they are all garbage collectors then I am going to take it, just like they do the bins, ooohh wit this early, I must take a lie down.
 Joking aside and believe me they barely scraped jokes this morning I am astonished at how many litter collections we get here, it seems a truck is outside my apartment every morning and for me to notice it then it is definitely strange as I am hopeless when it comes to routines, I am sure they have their reasons, perhaps someone will now enlighten me (awaits knock on door from 30 angry bronzed bin men imminently)









 

When in Rome :-)

Lesson number one when in a new Country is to always look around and see what the locals are up to. Now, me being me I can preach a good story but I can seldom abide by one. In any case, this morning I was busy tidying up the apartment I am in over here in Manly Sydney when I happened to get chance to look out through the main window, it confirmed what I was already thinking and that was how quiet everything was, look I know it was a Sunday morning but hey this was almost "Ghost Town" like.
So, me being an alien in Oz i decided it would be a great idea to head for the town centre and maybe read the Sunday rag at a table with a nice caramel latte for companionship, you know the stuff of advertising executives dreams, guy sitting there waving at all the locals and ordering his favourite brand etc etc.
So with that thought firmly in my mind, i grabbed my trainers a pair of black jeans and me being English my "Weathertite" lightweight coat. I was so cocky i even whistled "Easy like a Sunday Morning" by the Commodores while i walked with a lively spring in my step towards the ubiquitous cafe with table outside, oh did i mention the newspaper seller on hand with his cart and the catching ability of Ian Botham for the 2 dollars i throw his way as payment as i keep walking?, oh perhaps later then, anyway I digress, there I was walking along with not a care in the world, not a soul about, no-one under my feet just a chilled guy on a mission to fulfil his wishes of a coffee while reading his favourite paper while watching the world go by..
Except.. this is Sydney, well Manly, but its close. It had also escaped my attention that today was the second day of winter.
What transpired was as bloody as any massacre known to man, a slap in the face of such mammoth proportions as to be unimaginable, a desecration of the holiest of grounds, the leveling of entire cities and all its inhabitants dry frozen and shrink wrapped for later consumption by aliens from Jupiter. OK, so maybe i am laying it on a little thick here, but the reality is it rained. I know, its no big deal but this wasn't just a summer squall. This was rain like we Brits don't get to see, this was like Zeus getting really pissed with how the Thames was looking so deciding to do a little re-routing, via the Atlantic. It rained so hard I couldn't see my hand in front of me at one point, visibility was OK but the rain drops were hitting my eyes so hard I couldn't see where i was going, I found out in less than 5 minutes walk from my apartment why there was no-one on the streets, they knew.. they all knew. I also knew they were laughing, I didn't see anyone I just knew it, in their cars, at their windows, in the hotels, that smug laugh, the "hahahaha there is always one" type of laugh and today it was aimed at me. I deserved it. In seconds i was drenched and by the time i got to my cafe the table and chair had floated into the Pacific just behind the paper boy and he hadn't even had chance to catch my 2 dollars let alone wave a cheery wave for the camera, my image of a "cool" Sunday morning was forever shattered behind the hotel windows and the steering wheels of locals all queueing up in the dry to get their paper from the local newsagent as i cowered under a shop pelmet on the front frozen and waiting for the 4 hour storm to blow over.
So, for tomorrow I shall be glancing out of the window and watching intently as to the local attire, if it is shorts and t shirt I will be joining them but if it is quiet and no-one is moving I shall grab "The Times" crossword and sit smugly as i lay in wait for the next Englishman in Sydney who hasn't kept an eye on the locals and their attire to pass by.....

 

Despicable You.

Aside such pride before the fall
That you'd be caught or not at all
That vanity should thine embrace
And rescue such a pretty face

Hard done by you such consequence
Your own defeat that made no sense
For stood I firm and watched you fall
I heard but thus ignored your call

For time and trouble seek my blood
In battles born your neighbourhood
That I would stand and light your way
Was not in doubt, you made me pay.

Unleash your bile and trash my soul
Speak ill of I that made you whole
Of love such crime I plead my guilt
Unlike your vanity won't wilt.

Creative I.

I have just finished another 5 pages of a new novel I am writing, shameless publicity I know, but hey it pays the bills, so you would think that the last thing I would be doing is picking up my faithful lap top and writing again. Well, you would be wrong, obviously because here I am. The truth is with a creative mind comes creative pressure, it's not like some guilt trip that continually tells you to work, its different to that, it's not about being a workaholic either, having a creative mind means you open yourself to all that you see, it can be very hard for someone to grasp that you are constantly bombarded with thoughts every second of the day, anything from how a building was constructed to how a plane stays in the air, my mind is constantly working and analysing what people are thinking, how they are reacting, what they say and why do they say it, how i feel, it goes on and on, its like a whirlwind that never stops.
If I am being honest, I wish a lot of the time that I was more normal so to speak, I find concentrating on things for a longer period very difficult, my mind wonders and wants to jump ship to the next thing and the next thing, all the time searching like some hungry wolf pack that never eats its fill.  A very good friend of mine summed me up perfectly, she said you have a "butterfly" brain, it continually flits from plant to plant seeking that one true place that it belongs to yet in reality we all know that will never happen, it's not coded to land and stay, its cursed to forever be in flight.
Am I cursed? hardly. But the reality is I have had to learn to live with it and try and control how life is to be viewed, its a huge ask because the more i analyse situations the more active my thoughts, people often confuse it with Bi-polar syndrome but I would dream of having just two personalities to deal with, Schizophrenia? well, maybe but I have no destructive traits and if anything I get hurt more because I wear my heart on my sleeve, that is what happens when you open yourself up to the world, you make yourself vulnerable and people see that as a weakness.
 The very fact I can talk or write about what makes me tick brings me a lot further forward than I have ever been in dealing with who I am and where I want to be in life, the biggest issue is getting over the denial that there is a problem in the first place, something I used to just try and laugh off, then sink into a pit of self pity because I thought i was misunderstood.
Once you accept that you are different and that your over active brain can be helped and controlled and all its energy pointed in a direction that will not only stimulate it but sometimes even exhaust it,  life just rewards you again and again, don't get me wrong, it's not an easy task but by keeping myself busy with new projects and new scenery and a constant huge writing work load I can shed all that excess energy that would otherwise be so destructive. You can say I am crazy, after all its a fine line between insanity and genius but I have learnt to appreciate the gift I have rather than fight it and deny it, yes I am different and yes it sometimes leaves me stood out from the crowd (and not always for the better) but I am me and I cant help who I am anymore than anyone else can, it's like any illness or affliction it is what you make of it. For once at this moment in time I am happy that the real person gets a chance to explain where some of my boundless energy and constant huge workload originates from, or at least why it's there. Maybe it will also explain some of the stupid things I do, but then again, who am I to make excuses, we all do stupid things sometimes.

Astronauts and Pioneers.

Sat at Glorias coffee house on Manly Wharf Sydney this afternoon I had a little chuckle to myself while listening to a couple of very senior citizens who were so obviously local to the area too, one from Manly and the other I am sure said he was from the Blue Mountain region. I know it is awfully rude to eavesdrop but to be fair if i had been sat on the ferry itself I would have most probably been able to hear them, I think the batteries were running a little low on the deaf aids, if worn at all!.
It began quite innocently enough when he requested the whereabouts of the toilets for his good lady wife, the one woman sat at the table opposite said "No worries I will take you love I am going myself" and off they trotted, I thought to myself how nice, then the old man who i soon learned was 83 years old, (he kept repeating it) sat at the table opposite with the other older lady while they waited for them to return.
No sooner had he sat down than he launched into where he was from and what his son did for a living (he is a vet by the way, covers a huge area around the Blue Mountains you know)  he then went on to say when he moved to the Blue mountains it was a cardboard city, not that he minded, he loves the outdoors apparently. He was also very preturbed that 40 years ago he could park anywhere in the street and not worry but now he struggles to find a parking space, there's progress for you eh?.
"Australia is the best Country on earth, I have been to Florida to live and work and I have been all over the place but there is nowhere like Australia, trouble is so many other people think the bleeding same now" he piped up, now just remember he was in the midst of the Manly ferry terminal on the very day of a food and wine festival which was aimed at, yes you've guessed it .. tourists who were about 8 deep on both sides of us...
He then compared his age at one point to Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, who i had gathered from the conversation had recently died, (Neil that is),
 "Only a few months ago you know, he was the same age as me!"  i could not help but smile as he spoke with such conviction like they were the best of buddies, yet his main worry was that so many people were coming to Australia to live that it would soon be overcrowded.  I was dying to introduce myself as one of 60 million Brits from an island a tenth of the size but I have to admit I was simply enjoying listening to the old timer, the two older women returned from their little toilet break and they all proceeded to catch up with each other and talk about astronauts and old times, an amazing range of subjects considering the venue, but just before they parted company I was treated to an old song which I am sure all of Australia will know but me?.. well I just had to sit and listen and try to look inconspicuous as they sang away, I remember it ended with something like "I am just an old char girl" or something or other, simply because they were on top form for the last verse.
God bless the older population I say, but if the biggest worry for the old man in the Coffee shop is Australia becoming overcrowded it will be because people like him charm visitors from the other side of the world like me and his nightmare may become a reality, but i think his fears are unfounded if my own wonderfully diverse Country is anything to go by.

As I mentioned earlier in the above piece, Manly has a Food and Drink festival today, it was full of stalls and live bands which played great music while all the hotels and shops benefited from the huge amount of extra people in attendance, I have to say Australia knows how to party and something else I have noticed since I have arrived on these shores, people know how to smile, they aren't nearly as up tight about every little detail as we Brits, even though the roads were closed and the festival sprawled all over town there were very few officials walking round with their main aim being to ruin somebody's day, it was very much a live and let live event and the key was having fun not just another excuse for the health and safety gestapo culture we live in spoiling what should be a time to dance, a time to sing and a time for fun, well done Australia don't ever let that ability to enjoy such a day without restrictions slip through your fingers ! .

One thing I have to admit really does annoy me here in Manly (and you have probably gathered it isn't much!) is the constant attention of our friends from the skies in the shape of seagulls. If you dare to sit on a seat outside of the Wharf complex you can rest assured you will soon have all the company you could ever want, albeit the winged variety and plenty of them too!. It is much safer to do as the locals do if they grab a sandwich and that is to eat it inside, I wondered if Alfred Hitchcock had ever visited at some point while trying to tuck in this afternoon as it would be very easy to see where he got his inspiration for The Bird's. Seagulls 1 Subway sandwich 0 a result all too often replayed come the tourist season I have no doubt, you have been warned !