AUSTRALIA The flight from LA to Sydney passed in a mist of free alcohol, bad movies and cramped sleeping arrangements. Not too bad really and Qantas are by FAR the best airline I have flown with. The pilot set the tone for this part of the trip just as we touched down: If this is your first time in Australia I think you'll find that we are a friendly bunch... I don't think he'd heard about the Redfern Riots yet... I'm in an interweb cafe near Hyde Park (Sydney is like an alternative London without the filth and despair) getting to grips with a huge pile of email and trying to catch up with the one or two forums I still bother to read. We have a new mobile number too. Apologies to the few mad souls who have been trying to get a hold of me. I don't have the new number handy but I'll mention it the next time I post. Promise. We are here for a few more days before finally meeting up with Johnny in Perth and then on to Brisbane for a reunion with Frank. We have ODD gifts for the pair of them... After that a quick stop in Japan and we will back home before you know it. But we may be popping over to Amsterdam in March too. That's all for now. We have a huge pile of chinatown DVDs to go watch... Mike is blogging to: the sound of a thousand tourist monkeys pounding away on keyboards...