Scotty & Josie outside the Melbourne Museum of Art

Dining at the Opera House

Subject: Episode ?    3 Broads Abroad in Sydney
To:  Concerned Relatives and.........
From:  Scotty's Dad
cc:  The rest of the 3 Broads Abroad Mailing List avoiding work by reading
about three girls avoiding work for as long as possible:

 Last nite Scotty called her Mom to make sure she would have insomnia for at least another week (before she checks in again).  Scotty's Mom is not very  excited about knowing in advance what she is up to (she prefers sleeping to worrying) - and keeps telling Scotty to wait and tell her about the things she does after (it hasn't worked for 25 years, why should it now?)...........should any other Mom wish for mail that has been appropriately censored in this manner, you might try asking your husband to read it first????????????

Your three "angels"  arrived safely in Sydney  yesterday (June 22) for a  two day whirlwind tour of civilization prior to leaving for the wilds of Fraser Island (or Great Sandy Island if you prefer).  Anyone looking at a map will  find it's the eastern-most projection of Australia, and looks much like Cape  Cod.  It's a very large all-sand island according to Scotty, whose attraction is the ability to rent 4 -wheel drive vehicles (I can hardly wait 'till we hear the "real" definition of this) and tackle the dunes all day.

Interestingly, they were not really excited about seeing Sydney............to  them it's another nice city, and they had just left Melbourne which fits the  same category.  Shows the gap in thought process between my daughter and I --   Sydney would still be high on my list of "places to do" even if I had been  there 10 times!! -- But to trade it for a sand island when Baja is right next  door??????????????

        The latest schedule if we understand it correctly (tomorrowland dates):

        Sydney 2 days (6/22 - 6/23), then to Fraser Island for the aforementioned escapade) before moving on to Cairns to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

        7/08 Brisbane to Auckland
        7/09 Auckland to Denpasur,Bali for 10 days
        7/19 Denpasur to Singapore- Overland thru Indonesia to Thailand.
        8/05 Bangkok to Ho Chi Min (Saigon)  Overland to Hanoi
        8/12 Hanoi to Hong Kong - Overland to Shanghai& Beijing
        8/29 Beijing to Los Angeles
        8/29 Arrive LAX 20 minutes younger than when they left China - guess this beats plastic surgery.

        You know, I was just thinking about my "avoiding work" comment at the beginning of this diatribe -- with the length of mail list and it's international flavor, we could probably shut down world commerce for a  noticeable period of time ........... anyone with ideas on how we could profit from this new-found power??

 We had an absolutely hysterical, enlightening, publishable  message, a brillant piece of literature, that was composed of at least ten different ways to achieve world peace but was lost in the wilds of cyberspace. We will now just give a brief overview of topics from Austalia that Scotty did not  include in her message while Frik and Frak got their 2 1/2 hour, full body, face and hair massages ( Scotty received the same treatment the following day so don't let her whine). By the way, some lucky people will reap the benefits of what we've learned about Balinese Massage techniques as we're coming home armed with jasmine-scented body oil....
 Ok, the recap (minus the save-the-world rigamarole):
 As an aside, we are So GOOD LOOKING in our dirty traveling clothes that just crossing the street in Melbourne, men stopped and insisted that they spend the afternoon buying us drinks and talking about the fashion industry. Of course they were twice our age, and they'd been drinking a little, but we think  they were representative of a much wider male Australian population in their adoration of us.  Just so you know.
 In Sydney we attended a matinee performance of the Best of Australian Opera.   It was a charity concert to benefit cancer and it was outstanding.  We pretended we were in beautiful ballgowns instead of our dirty t-shirts and jeans.  More appropriately to our dress, we were tempted to take the Harley Davidson Motorcycle tour of the city to fulfil our dreams of being biker babes.  We dusted off our leather chaps and everything, but we didn't have time.
 Next came

Byron Bay, hippie paradise at the end of a delightful overnight train ride (in which our "101 Ways To Sleep Sitting At A 90 Degree Angle Handbook" failed us again) in time to involuntarily watch the sun rise over the ocean while we waited for the hostels to open (actually Josie missed it because she was sleeping on the park picnic table).  Julz mustered up the energy to go hang-gliding wtih yet another sportsmaster (do you see a pattern here?). Josie and Scotty continued to shock young boys on the beach as their two-toned skin proved beyond all reasonable doubt that they were not born European.

... continued in Oz Adventures II ...