Sydney,
14.9.67 Morning.
Hi
there!
Spent
an odd day yesterday not getting anything much done – Stephen Hall should have
contacted me by last night, but there was nary a word. I’ll ring him this arvo if I don’t hear from him
by then.
Had
breakfast with a Mrs Notts (that’s right!) yesterday, and she and I chatted
quite a bit. She comes from up country (near the Castlereagh River) and is down
to see her daughter who’s been in hospital about a month with a baby that’ll
have to arrive too soon. This morning had breakfast with a Melbourne man in
Civil Aviation (he detests opera, but chatted about it) and he was very
interested in the flight I had over here. (These two days are the first times
I’ve had breakfast with anyone – generally the ‘woman who guides you to your
seat’ plunks me down in some far corner where everyone (particularly the
waitresses) ignores me!
Went
outside after that (yesterday again) and did No 2 lesson in German – it’s not
nearly as hard a yet! Then since I hadn’t heard from the Trust, I decided to go to
Luna Park – it was shut until Friday; went to Manly on the Hydrofoil, but Manly
was rather cold – there were still quite a few on the beach, though. If I thought it was cold, heaven knows how
they felt! Didn’t stay there long, but it was about 2.30 when I finally had
some lunch. Thought that I might go to Fiddler
on the Roof, so I asked directions to get to Her Majesty’s, [as opposed to
His Majesty’s Theatre which still went by that title in Dunedin] to see if
I could get a seat. Still haven’t found H.M’s, but found about 3 secondhand
bookshops! I don’t know what Customs will think – perhaps I’d better post some
of them home! (There’s only nine
including 2 I bought with me!)
Went
back to K.C. via taxi after not
finding H.M’s, and as usual arrived with me heart nearly popping out of me
mouth. Sydney’s taxidrivers are probably the best in Australasia, but I wouldn’t
bank on it! Back to town to see Barefoot
in the Park which was quite a lot of fun, but not as funny as Mrs Notts had
led me to believe. Had some tea in a place called the Poet and Peasant (I don’t know why) and then decided to be
madly daring and go and see Guide for the
Married Man (directed by Gene Kelly) which really was funny – Mrs Notts hadn’t liked it as much! [Not sure why I needed to be ‘madly daring’
to go and see this.] The theatre was apparently situated above the subway,
as every now and then there’d be a terrific rumbling and the place would shake
a little. GFTMM, which is all about a
man trying to learn how to have an
affair without letting his wife know about it (sounds a terrible subject,
doesn’t it?) is actually a very moral
film (!) because not one of the
characters is allowed to get away with any misdeed at any stage of the film. So
it’s a Guide in more ways than one. [I think I was trying to reassure my mother
that I wasn’t watching anything immoral.]
Back to
me little room where I was too tired even to write to you – so I hope this
catches the post and doesn’t break what must be an all-time record for me! See
ya, love Mike.
(PS
Thanks for the Peanuts – marvellous!)
