|
 |
15th Nov 2005
Out of Townsville
Tuesday, 15th November, 2005
Up early; yet another scorcher – there’s little point in going on about the weather out here but the ferocity of the heat at such an early hour always makes me stop and think. What a climate? It’s baking hot and its only 8 o’clock in the morning. Breakfast out on the verandah. Loaded up our bags and were under way not long after 9.30.
We went down into the town to the aquarium and had a look through there. Its quite good and probably dealing well with a difficult subject, but it wasn’t a patch on Monterey … which is but a distant and hazy memory. The tanks are large but once again the visibility was quite poor … perhaps it’s the tropical water … or perhaps it’s the lighting, either way, the effect is not nearly as dramatic.
We did our last minute shopping including a couple of cornettos which were to suffice for the time being, as elevenses and lunch and got the car along to the airport at about 12.30. This was a couple of hours later than Europcar were expecting … but they seemed relatively relaxed about it.
We got a beer at the airport and then went through security where I was casually pulled aside on a random check ... but it was a very relaxed and informal swab of the outside of my camera bag for explosives.
The Qantas flight left about half an hour late and the flight lasted about one hour twenty. The most interesting observation involved the person sitting next to Anne. This was a youngish and apparently well travelled businessman who introduced himself as soon as she sat down and wanted to exchange life histories. The conversation developed further as she took out her Sudoku book and started to do one of the puzzles. Well, he was keen to find out about this new phenomena and Anne, who as some of you will know, is not particularly partial either to having anyone reading over her shoulder or the prospect of having anyone advising on such matters. Interesting dilemma and while resisting any opportunity to be drawn into the verbal exchanges, I thought it was well worth watching quietly from the sidelines.
It didn’t take long for the gentleman to be referred to his own Sudoku puzzle “which could be found in (his) seat pocket at the back of the in flight magazine” and it didn’t stop there … whatever intellect he possessed … which had taken him to whatever level in his profession he had reached, had not prepared him either for the complexity of the Sudoku puzzle in front of him or for the scant instructions proffered by Qantas. So there was per necessity, a further consultation. Anne’s explanation was perhaps not quite how Carol Voorderman might have described the procedure but nonetheless I sat back to watch him tackle his first puzzle.
He elected to do this by identifying common factors and so proceeded to list every number between 1 and 9, which could possibly fit inside each blank square … with the logic that he would then be able to work out all the common possibilities and complete the puzzle. The result was a confusing mass of numbers around the margin of the puzzle, but not one of the squares actually filled in. I nudged Anne and suggested that she might like to intervene lest the situation got completely out of hand and he started having to make further notes on his trouser leg.
This whole process must have lasted about 25 minutes and when she eventually explained some of the simple deduction associated with the first Sudoku moves a glimmer began to emerge and he set forth diligently and quietly. He never uttered another word for the rest of the flight … not even for lunch or coffee … and then as we busied were busily elbowing our way into the baggage reclaim queue, he came up to thank her profusely for introducing him to the game.
The car pick was extremely smooth and efficient and our departure from Brisbane airport suitably slick as well. We headed into town and after a turn through the streets, drew into an underground car park near to Anzac Square.
Wandered through looking at the shops … most particularly frequenting the travel sections one of the book stores, in order to get a list of phone numbers out of the Lonely Planet guide for bed and breakfasts in the town.
Initially Anne was keen to get out of town for the night towards Toowong, which is where I have a meeting tomorrow and so we took a turn out that way – about 6 km – but there wasn’t any kind of accommodation whatsoever in evidence … so we went back and plucked one of the Lonely planet numbers – Annie’s Shandon Inn, right in the heart of town. We got the last room. It’s run by a really enthusiastic Ozzie and was full to the brim of travellers. We lugged the cases up the very narrow stairs and hit the town for dinner. Our host this evening had mentioned that on Tuesdays and Wednesdays the St Paul’s tavern offered 2 for 1 dinners … so we certainly wouldn’t be going anywhere else! A short walk saw us sat in front of a couple of ‘schooners’ (you have pots – roughly a half pint, schooners – just short of a pint and on occasion pints) of cascade having ordered two huge steaks … all of which cost less that $30 or £15!
Back to our tiny room to re-charge batteries and organise a bit of packing.
|
Diary Photos |
My Home
