Hi everyone! Mindy felt that I should put my two cents in . . . or something. Eventually, I intend to read through what she has written and make comments, however, since I went to Victoria Market this past Friday for a longer time than she did, I thought I would tell my story. First of all, please understand that I had a dream one night (I'm not sure exactly when, they all sort of blur together). In the dream I was telling Mindy how upset I was to have left Australia without having purchased any boomerangs or digerdydoos (an aboriginal musical instrument). I then realized that I also hadn't purchased the one item my father requested from Sydney . . . for that matter we hadn't even gone to Sydney . . . so I ... read more

Long day on the bus today. Left the hotel at 8 am. Drove for a couple of hours then stopped for "morning tea" in the town of Glenrowan, home of the Australian bandit/Robin Hood named Ned Kelly. On the next leg of our journey we watched a documentary about kangaroos, but I slept through most of it. Stopped for lunch in a town called Holbrook. Originally it was called Germantown, but due to legislation during the first world war, the name was changed. And then changed a few times apparently. Eventually, the town decided to name itself after a British submariner. So even thought the town is hours from the coast, there's a submarine in the town square. After lunch, our bus driver played a CD by someone named Lazy Harry. It has all the Australian ... read more

Today is our free day in Melbourne. We could have signed up for some of the optional stuff, but I really wanted a day of not doing much. We slept in a bit this morning then headed out to Victoria Market again. We'd been thinking of taking the free tram, but looking at the map of the city we had, we realized it was quite walkable. Got there a just past 10 am and after walking around together for a bit, I left Haviva to her shopping and headed back here. Once I'm done here, I've got to go get some more cash, then I plan on resting this afternoon before heading to Wicked. During our city tour yesterday I noticed that Rocky Horror was playing here. I almost wish I'd known that before booking the ... read more

Today was the train ride from Adelaide to Melbourne. Met in the lobby at 6:15, bus to the train station to check-in. The train has a 20 kg max on checked luggage and is apparently very strict about it. So on our flights from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs and Alice Springs to Adelaide, we were all checking our weights. H was a bit over, and I was a bit under, so I ended up with some of her stuff in my bag. The train boarded around 7 am and took off around 7:40. The ride took about 11 hours, we got to Melbourne around 7 pm local time (there's a 1/2 hour time zone distance between Adelaide and Melbourne). We were in the Red Premium car and we had plenty of room. A twelve hour ... read more

One thing we noticed on the way into town from the airport yesterday was that they already have some Christmas ornaments up in the streets here in Adelaide. Okay, guys, can we at least wait until November 1st? Actually, it seems there is a Christmas parade here early in November, so they get ready early. Walking through the city yesterday we found Synagogue Place. And guess what, there's actually a synagogue there. But it was closed and we don't know if it's still in operation (Rabbi Kushner, do you know?). We managed to catch part of the recap of Game 3 of the World Series last night. From the 7th through 9th innings. Oy, did Tampa Bay throw away that game or what. We were on the road during Game 4, but we're hoping there's another ... read more