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Chapter 9

 

 

Diana's stopped fiddling about with the technology.

“Before we settle down to enjoy the, hole by hole, replay of this afternoon's game," she says. "We’ll start with your camera and run thought the photos you took of me this morning, to see if any of those poses is too raunchy. I might need to keep those for my collection. The rest will have to go I'm afraid.”

"Oh shit!" I thought she's forgotten it. She’s gone straight to the stolen Olympus. It was under my coat on the chair. If she looks at the content of memory card in that Olympus, she'll discover I stole it. That's reason enough for her to call Security and turn me in, without risk to herself. Those people don't like petty thieves.

I can already hear the sirens in my imagination.  At least jail might save me from Geraldo's stiletto. But I'm not sure which is worse. Big men in prison are said to like handsome boys like me. At least the stiletto will be quick.

She’s taking the xD card out of the Olympus...

Now I’m deep mierda.  The hotel phone is by her hand. Will she call Security?

On the 60-inch TV, larger than life-sized images, of total strangers, appear on the screen. Two men and a woman. But amazingly, they are near the pool at my hotel.

A second woman must be taking the photos. There’s a camera case on the table, and a woman's bag.  

“Who are these strange people?" Diana demands. "Friends of yours? Who’s this, and this? And who's holding the camera?”

Ok, I'll have to make up an excuse: “It’s not actually my camera.” I’m stammering. “I picked it up at the boat place. Someone had lost it. I was going to hand it in today.”

"So, you thought you would give them some bonus photographs of me posing for you?" she smirks. "I don't think so! I think you're a liar, a thief and an attempted blackmailer."

She’s still scrolling forward, through the Olympus owner’s photos, looking for the ones I took of her.

“Wait a minute!" She scrolls back and enlarges the image: "There’s you and Geraldo talking in the background. And here you are again. And he’s got an arm around you, like an old friend." 

“My god! You're telling the truth about that prick!” she declares.

 

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Travel

Central Australia

 

 

In June 2021 Wendy and I, with our friends Craig and Sonia (see: India; Taiwan; JapanChina; and several countries in South America)  flew to Ayer's Rock where we hired a car for a short tour of Central Australia: Uluru - Alice Springs - Kings Canyon - back to Uluru. Around fifteen hundred kilometres - with side trips to the West MacDonnell Ranges; and so on.

Read more: Central Australia

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Soul of the Matter

 

 

 

 

It was hot, dry and dusty when they finally arrived in Jaisalmer.  But then, how often is it not hot and dusty here? 

In the markets a wizened woman, of indeterminate age, is using a straw broom to aggressively sweep the area in front of her shop. The dust will soon be kicked-back by passers-by; or swept back by her neighbours; requiring her to sweep again, and again.  She will do the same again tomorrow; and the day after; and the day after that.

Jennifer's mind is elsewhere. She's has dreamt of visiting exotic India ever since a client at the hairdressers told her, with enthralling details, of her adventures here.

They've arrived in the dusty city late in the afternoon, by road from Jodhpur.  In spite of his preference to visit California or Las Vegas again, she's finally persuaded Bruce that he might like India. He should try something a bit more adventurous for a change.

Below the entrance to the famous Jaisalmer Fort, is a small square that marks the start of the road winding up, then turning at right-angles, through the protective elephant-proof gates.  In this little square, motorised trishaws: Tuk-tuks, jostle restlessly like milling cattle.  They are waiting for tourists, like our travellers, who may hire them tomorrow to see the town or, if they are lazy or tired, just to mount the steep hill up to the Fort. 

Read more: The Soul of the Matter

Opinions and Philosophy

Luther - Father of the Modern World?

 

 

 

 

To celebrate or perhaps just to mark 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his '95 theses' to a church door in Wittenberg and set in motion the Protestant Revolution, the Australian Broadcasting Commission has been running a number of programs discussing the legacy of this complex man featuring leading thinkers and historians in the field. 

Much of the ABC debate has centred on Luther's impact on the modern world.  Was he responsible for today? Without him, might the world still be stuck in the 'Middle Ages' with each generation doing more or less what the previous one did, largely within the same medieval social structures?  In that case could those inhabitants of an alternative 21st century, obviously not us, as we would never have been born, still live in a world of less than a billion people, most of them working the land as their great grandparents had done, protected and governed by an hereditary aristocracy, their mundane lives punctuated only by variations in the weather; holy days; and occasional wars between those princes?

Read more: Luther - Father of the Modern World?

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