Shaking the dust off our feet

It was getting time to leave the Red Centre, say goodbye to that rather uneasy town Alice Springs, return the large car to Avis, have another dekko at Tim Storrier's large fire in the bush painting at the airport and zoom into the air to look down on the vast flat expanses of scrubby 'emptiness' that fills the middle of this landmass, 5% of the Earth's.

Time to shake the red dust off the sandals.

We flew to Sydney where the airline lost Mrs Poodle's bag, as reported earlier. We checked into our favourite hotel 'The Dive' on Coogee Beach near to Bondi Beach. We got the T-Shirt to prove it that reads 'my favourite hotel is a dive'. It is run by an Ozzie architect, his Thai? wife and their Alaskan wolf 'Bella' and yes grumpy poodle 'Babe'. This is a must stay hotel and should be included in the 'Hip Hotel' series. Minimalist and functional and friendly. In the communal area I met a man called John who was born on the Meath Road in Bray. It was time for rest amd recreation and bag reorganisation and LAUNDRY. Mr Poodle has developed an obsession with spotting washing facilities along with trying to lighten his 20 kilo bag. This is not helped by purchases of T-Shirts, fluffy toys and postcards. The way he judges a town is by it's standard of Internet, Laundry, Post, Fluffy toy facilities. Art is for vultures. Himmler is quoted as saying "When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver". This could be a downward spiral if not checked. He saw a very supportive quote somewhere however: 'You look reasonable, time to up my medication'.