Intermission

A tall Swedish man in black is mowing a foot path around his house. We are not far from Officer Crescent street in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

11:00AM on Tueday in Sydney is 7:00PM on Monday in New York

Good morning from the day following the one you are currently in now, America. Here are the advancements I've gathered from life 14 hours ahead of the one you are living now:

1. Sockets have power switches, thereby eliminating the power drain all electronics and appliances pull on live sockets (about 60% of their total consumption).
2. There is one button on toilets for No. 1 and a larger button for No. 2.
3. The probability this city will do away with me via car (always a high probability) is increased exponentially due to the fact all cars make illegal left hand turns and my head swivels to the right looking for insane drivers driving and/or turning from the left, and so on. I'm working overtime to not become Sydney's newest flavor of street meat.

Syndey is a combination of San Diego (terra cotta, temperate, uninsulated, easy living), San Francisco (lush with hills) and Toronto without zoning (mixed residential, shopping, train and light industrial all over the place). Sydney is sprawling with a true western contempt for good city planning.

Individualism clearly runs rampant and 'I'll do it my way.' whether my way works in any way but for myself -usually temporarily - or not seems to be the modus operandi from the mini-time warp into the future.

I can't knock it. They got a lot done here: Took over a continental size island and made it almost completely safe for white people.

And now what I see is a fair representation of the success of global capitalism! Yesterday was spent in Balmain, the dirty, coal-fired suburb of Sydney of 30 years ago that has wealthy office dwelling yuppies of today drooling over it's enticing combination of non-thru traffic and easy drive to Sydney.

It's a dream come true of million dollar plots of land and $20 dollar cheap umbrellas and $3 sodas that is not so much different than New York, Stockholm or London I expect: The success of capitalism taking all the wiggle room out of pockets of economic losers like myself. It's nice to be reminded that getting away from the screw means leaving the company of the modestly civilized white people. It's good to know what version of discomfort you don't aspire to.

There are a tremendous amount of birds. I have no idea what kind they are, but they are loud as hell.

People say things like "Everything you want to see is around the Central Quay" (pronounced 'key') which is the ferry hub of downtown Sydney. Maybe it's true. Maybe I don't want to actually see how people live in Australia. Luckily the neighborhood we are staying with Rebecca and Katrina's (R's sister) old family friend Patrick and his woman, Rebecca, Marrickville provides a nice window onto the experience of the steadily immobile treading along within the Australian economy.

Despite being a stone's throw from the airport, the cab driver had no idea where he was taking us. I don't think this is where civilized people coming off $1500 plane (and that's cheap) trips from America go. The cab fare was $25 and it must have been 4 miles at the most. This rate makes NYC cabs look like a bargain, even with the 2007 rate hike.

Generally everything under $10 is about $2 more than the states. If you buy ten Energizer AA's at the Chemist the bubble wrap also contains a free Schick razor with the latest number of redundant blades which make it Extreme or Ultra or whatnot. Aside from this kind of promotion, you'd think they never heard of China - despite it being so close - but then again they don't have the economy of scale to drive prices so far into the dirt, the way we can with 300 million to supply. So the fruits of China cost that much more.

I explained to Con, short for Constantine, the small business owner of Munch deli on Marrickville Road - the main strip right up the way - ("Give Way to..." is equivalent to Yield here), what Michael Moore explained to me in Sicko on the plane over: If I accidentally chop off the ends of two fingers and one costs $10,000 to put back on and the other cost $40,000 to put back on, I will be forced to weigh debt load against finger re-application to come up with a decision that 'fits my budget.'

This small business owner looked on bug-eyed. Apparently the US medical system gets a lot of horror coverage in the local media. He seems to think it makes sense for people to NOT pay a per visit price for healthcare or be forced to self-insure for $200 a month or to even be rejected based on pre-existing conditions. He is even happy to pay a percentage of his higher income to cover the medical expenses of people in his society who make less. What freaks these Australians are!

Today is downtown Sydney before a rendezvous with an old neighborhood friend from Bangor and Gulf War I vet, Greg. Frisbee golf is also in the works. The weather is overcast, 20C, and mildly warm. Jet lag seems to be wearing off.

Au revior!

Itinerary and departure

Charlie and Shadow, the Toyota Tacoma and Volkswagen Jetta respectively, both needed moving this Saturday morning. The parking lot will be plowed at 9AM. It's uncommonly cold. Minnesota has it's first complete early winter blanket of state-wide snow cover in 10 years - temperatures are normal, meaning a lot colder earlier than I've experienced.

I wonder what the temperature actually is as I drive past a black man, with a black beard and white icicles coming off his face this morning. Did you assume he was homeless? Just in case, he's an affluent Kenwood businessman out on a morning pleasure walk...with icicles in his beard. Gloves with high tech thermal begin to feel invisible.

The current temperature in Sydney, where I will be on Sunday, is around 70 degrees. The current time there is 2:49AM, tomorrow night.

Here is the approximate itinerary:

08 DEC Depart MSP
10 DEC Arrive SYDNEY, visit with Rebecca's mother's sister, Lila and daughter Chechnen's family. Also Greg Andle, an old Lost Boy from Bangor back back in the day, lives with his wife Asa (pronounced Ossa - also originally Swedish) in Syndney - serious catch up time is in the pipeline.
15 DEC Decamp for BUNDEENA which is a large park just south of SYDNEY, camp for a while
17 DEC Arrive CANBERRA, about 60km south of BUNDEENA, the capital territory and where more family live and Jenny, Keith's girlfriend has a house
18 DEC Travel along the Southeastern Coast - very scenic - towards Melbourne staying at small coastal towns along the way with Rebecca solo. 3 nights on the road taking our time.
20 DEC Arrive PHILLIPS ISLAND, south of Melbourne, for a family reunion on the Harrison side of the family (Rebecca's father Keith Harrison)
27 DEC Fly back to SYDNEY, one night before departure back to the US
28 DEC Arrive in LA before we left SYDNEY