The Home Stretch...
Okay, so I lied about being completely done with Australia. I was thinking like those personal trainers who enthusiastically squeal: "two more to go! … two… one… okay two more now… two… one… last two!" because if they actually admitted that you had to do six more sit ups you'd punch their lights out and go for a little nap.
When we last left me, I was scuttling out of the posh hotel near the Opera House in Sydney pretending not to be an obsessed stalker-fan but instead an invisible statue - to the odd look of the friendly receptionist blokey. Crap - obviously not all that invisible, then.
There are good sides and bad sides to meeting people via the internet. In common with the way I generally arrive at work and for most social events (unless there is food involved) I was fairly late to this whole online sociability; until about a year ago I used the internet for research and for keeping in touch with people I have actually met. Last summer though, having sworn absolutely not to watch, I was gutted every time I missed Rockstar:INXS. It became something of a spectator sport for people to find me, generally in a bar on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays (bear in mind I was in Canada at the time, no idea when it was shown in other countries), suddenly glance at my watch at approximately 10pm, slap my hand on my forehead and shout "bugger!" But, I managed to keep up to date with what was going on once I stumbled across the fan message boards. Between the brilliant Spoiler Crew who attended tapings and faithfully wrote up all that happened and the fans who discussed every broadcast moment in great detail, I was probably more comprehensively informed than most viewers. I couldn't have picked JD out of a line up, but I knew that he was the man for the job - evil Mark Burnett editing be damned. Over time, I found myself logging on, not just to find out what had happened on the latest episode I missed, but also to see what Junkyard Messiah or LAX Guy or Kylie thought of it, and thusly I was sucked into the weird and wonderful world of the internet.
As I say, there are good sides and bad sides; and I was lucky to experience the good side on my last day in Oz (actually throughout the trip, but I am telling the story of my last day in Oz right now.) One of my favourite things about travelling alone is meeting and spending time with people who, through geography, age, lifestyle and a million other factors, I would likely never otherwise stumble across. And that is just how I spent that last day: with a group of people from all over the place, all of whom I liked very much and none of whom I would have been particularly likely to meet in any other circumstances. We all 'knew' one another from the very message board on which the brilliant Spoiler Crew posted their Spoilers, which has since evolved into something of an INXS fan board. So a Brit, an Australian, a Canadian and an American all walked into a bar… no, it just sounds like a joke, we in fact walked from Bondi Beach to Bronte in the pouring rain and gale-force winds, blethering away like old friends, and watched some dolphins fishing. The one local amongst us then suggested an appropriately named bar - the Dolphin - to thaw out and tame our wind strewn afros, so we duly retired to the upstairs lounge huddled around a welcome fire where I sampled my first… second, third and fourth… Victoria Bitter. It was a very pleasant afternoon.
Earlier that morning, I'd received a text from a bloke I slightly knew from Vancouver who was working at the time in Sydney and who I'd planned to meet for a drink that evening. He had to cancel due to work, so rather than spend my last night Down Under aimlessly wandering the rain-soaked streets of Sydney, I decided to accompany the Canadian and the American (the Australian had other plans) to Luna Park on the off chance that there might be one ticket for that evening's sold out concert for scrounging…
