Anouska And Australia Fair

We dressed smartly and arrived at 9.0 am to witness Anouska and many-skinned others become Australian citiziens. They made declarations. We all stood to sing the National Anthem. These lines stand out:

Australians all let us rejoice

For we are young and free...

Our land abounds in Nature's gifts

In beauty rich and fair...

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross

We'll toil with hearts and hands...

With courage let us all combine To make Australia Fair.

We celebrated with wild fruits and joghurt at a hotel. Belinda, with her mum Wendy and baby Tom drove me to a rain-soaked budget Holiday Village where I spent six hours with the seven members of the Bessell family. I even squeezed in a heart to heart talk with Brad between other things. On returning from Melbourne we heard that Rod and Judy Kennedy were sandbagging their property in Carboolture, Queensland. Floods aborted our visit to Transfiguration Monastery two days previously, but not their resolve to seek beauty and speak truth to power without love,

I slept with the fan on. Cool.