Community Service

After allowing the mail to pile up for the past three weeks, I finally opened up the post box this evening to retrieve the bills, junk mail, and other assorted items. The most interesting discovery was a flyer from a concerned citizen calling the attention of the community to an alleged illegal brothel in our midst - in fact, just a 100 metres down the road from us. Apparently, someone at 392 Church Street offers "Oriental Relax - Massage". Not sure what that is exactly, but there appear to be at least a few folks in the community that disapprove of such relaxation. I walk past said house at least twice a day and have never noticed a thing, nor has anyone ever offered me relaxation. But one can rest assured that I'll be more attentive in the future. . .

Seattle & The Everglades

I was away for a while, back to the good ol' USA for a quick publicity tour. I started off dropping in on Seattle, visiting some folks at the University of Washington and basking in the cold, dreary, rainy weather for which the region is famous. I did manage to find some time to check out the Underground Tour, which provided a bit of history about the development of Seattle while demonstrating that with the right angle, one can turn a hole in the ground into a tourist attraction.

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Originally uploaded by BLP

I subsequently left Seattle for the more sunny Florida landscape, dropping in for a night at home in Atlanta before arriving in Miami to meet up with my Aussie companions who accompanied me on the rest of my tour. After a night in Miami, we headed through the Everglades, stopping at Wooten's Airboats to do a bit of airboating with Captain Scott.

We moved on with new found knowledge about the wildlife of the 'glades (including the proliferation of Burmese pythons and a recipe for venison burgers that was mouthwatering), spending a night in Naples before arriving in St. Petersburg to attend the Coastal Cities Summit. I, however, had to depart from the conference a bit early in order to make the long journey back to Melbourne and then on to Mildura to attend the 10th annual Mildura Gasshuku.

Closed for Business

In a bizarre blow to Australian tourism, the Simpson Desert has been closed for the summer, due to forecasts of extreme temperatures in excess of 50C. Apparently, the government has decided that conditions are just too dangerous and doesn't want to be in the position of having to fetch more than the usual allotment of corpses from the desert sands.

However, given that high temperatures are nothing new to the Australian landscape, others have proposed alternative explanations for the closure. Adelaide's newspaper, The Advertiser, for example, stoked the rumour mill which is abuzz with whispers about aliens being discovered in the park.