The rest of the trip was uneventful. Converted some cash into $400 AU dollars. The conversion rate is close to 1-for-1. I've already seen their plastic "paper money" before. It's very colorful. On the Sydney to Melbourne flight, my seat was in the upper deck of the 747. I'd never seen that part of the plane. It wasn't all that much different except that in this particular plane, they had small cabinets between the window seats and the wall where you could put your "overhead" luggage. Very convenient.
I got through customs without any trouble. Took a very long cab ride to the hotel. The woman driving the cab was an extremely motherly Indian woman who was talking about various Australian things. I mentioned that everyone talks about Australian opals. She turns out to be a real opal fanatic and tells me to be careful if I decide to buy them. The value of them can be difficult to determine. Every opal is extremely unique. The colors and characteristics vary so widely that it's almost difficult to call them all the same name. A perfect diamond would be pretty much identical to any other perfect diamond. The idea of a perfect opal is meaningless. Diamonds are pretty much indestructable; opals are fragile. Any two extremely valuable opals can be totally different and have vastly different characteristics. Some of the most amazing opals seem like just gray cloudy transluscent rocks until you shine a light on them and all the colors inside sparkle.
[Machines are diamonds. People are opals.]
In the middle of the cab ride, this woman gets a cellphone call. I hear her end of the conversation. She says all these scary things in the same calm motherly voice: "when did she leave?" ... "yes, I know she took the kids" ... "it's OK, I talked to her today, they're ok" ... "no, she wouldn't do that" ... etc.
After the call, she starts talking about the details. A cousin's wife is unstable. They broke up. He's got the kids. She can't take care of them: no money, no job, no sanity. She basically kidnapped the kids without warning. We talk about messed up families and messed up people. She didn't seem surprised that I had views on these sorts of things that were obviously from either direct personal observation or experience. That seemed odd.
I got to the hotel. Took a shower. Changed. Called M to see what happened with the cat: not a broken leg, cat had a fever [a cat scratch fever?], is on antibiotics. Sounds like one of those "we don't know what it is, so here's some antibiotics" sorts of things. Total cost was ninety something dollars. Well below my euthanasia threshold. Hehe.
I went into work, feeling fuzzy-headed but not tired. Everything was productive. I learned all about the Puffing Billy Road Race, which is a running race going up a steep hill, racing against a 120 year old steam train named Puffing Billy. We went out for lunch. At a stoplight, there was a small, bright purple convertable with a few girls in it. The bumper had large lettering saying, "cool girls don't wear undies". I must admit that I had my camera but didn't manage to take a picture. Blame shock and awe.
Got back to the hotel. The hotel is conveniently located in walking distance to a big shopping area. There's a good-sized mall plus about 100 little shops on various small streets. I went out and walked around looking at the things different in Australia. I didn't take any pictures, but I plan to do so later on. Notes to follow later, too.
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