Lucky 13

I'm reading a book right now given to me by my cousin's Aussie sister-in-law called In a Sunburned Country, and it's terrific! It's by Bill Bryson, a travel writer who visited and travelled all around Australia, in the outback and all of the major cities: Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Darwin, Canberra and Brisbane, as well as the little notable and historic towns in between.

Not only is Bryson a great writer-- entertaining, informative, funny-- but his book is giving me a lot of random and interesting facts about the country I'll be living in for five months. My favourite fact is the one I find the most incredible; I learned that the prime minister in 1967, Harold Holt, went for a walk on the beach in Victoria and decided to go for a swim. He disappeared and no trace of the poor man was ever seen again. How strange is that? Also, what was the prime minister doing walking around by himself without any body guards or whatever? That would never fly in the United States (though there was that recent thing with the governor of South Carolina who went "hiking in the woods" for a few days without telling anyone... he was actually having an affair with some Argentinian woman, but that's besides the point). Bryson also provided me with a list of books to read when I'm done with his. I already know that tomorrow my day will be spent mostly at the library.