Day 3

Today was a rather uneventful day except for the fact that I almost got beat up by a little old Australian woman but more on that later....
We got up around 7:00AM, remember our biological clock is still on "southern states" time, to another wonderful breakfast. Did I mention in my last blog that they serve baked beans with breakfast? Today was a free day so we decided to try out one of the beaches. We headed down to the wharf to catch a ferry over to Manly Beach. Nancy, I hope you are reading this because I know you will get a kick out of it. Out of ALL the people waiting there to get on the ferry a little elderly lady came up and tapped me on the shoulder and mumbled something like she needed help. I could tell that she probably didn't need to have been there by herself so I asked if she was ok and she just latched on to my arm to walk her onto the boat. I never could really understand her but I could tell that the dockhands knew her so I figured she must ride the ferry frequently. Once we got on she mosied on off and went to sit down. I heard her a little later yelling (very loudly) that she needed HELP! We all looked in her direction but we could tell this must be a regular occurence. A few minutes later she came out on the side where we were sitting and her little hat blew off and sort of rolled down the deck. Well she started screaming like someone had attacked her. A young couple that was sitting right down from us grabbed the hat and took it to her and that seemed to satisfy her....for a minute. Then, again out of ALL the people on that ferry, she came straight to me and handed me her little disposable camera and mumbled the words, "can you take my picture?" So, she posed and I tried to click and nothing happened. So I thought it must not be wound so I wound and wound and it was just out of film so I pretended to take it and handed it back to her. She said, "did you point?" I said, "Yes!" She said, "NO!" So I said, "I'm sorry it's out of film." She started yelling, "No, NO, NO!" and started to hit at me! I just grabbed her hands and said, "No, No" back at her ....and she walked away.

The beach was ok - but we left at lunch and went shopping. It was over a hundred degrees but if you were to ask a local they would have told you it was about 40 degrees. See ...lots to get used to over here. Their temp is calculated in celsius.

We are watching Australian Idol on TV - live. It's their final show. They are getting ready to choose the winner and it's happening right outside of our hotel at the Opera House. There are fireworks and lights everywhere. Sort of neat!

All in all it was a good day. Didn't get beat up and got to see a lot of excitment outside...oh, and the winner is..... Stan somebody.