Traveling with Ray Owens

Today we are in Melbourne, Australia which is the site of our red folder disappearing act. We had hoped that the lost property folks would have possession of said folder by this date. But contacting the gentle folks in the lost property office proved impossible. I called several times today and each time the phone were not answered and it went straight to voicemail. I was encouraged to leave a message and the nice voice promised to return the call by close of business tomorrow. We will be out at sea tomorrow and we will be untouchable.

I have mulled over the don’t answer the phone ploy and have come to a few theories.

1. They are enjoying looking at Penny’s masterful organizational accomplishments and are unwilling to forestall this guilty pleasure.

2. They are truly so busy with the other travelers and their lost property that they cannot answer the phone.

3. They may have closed the office in celebration of Australia Day. Today Monday is the legal holiday since July 26 fell on a Sunday some people may need the Monday to recover from the revelry of Sunday

Nevertheless the red notebook will not be joining us for the remainder of our trip.

We set off for our morning tour at about 8:30. Our guide was very good. He began by telling us that there are 3 important dates in Australia’s history.

1835 was the year that the first European’s arrived in Australia. Soon after the government of Great Britain began transporting convicts to Australia. It was the height of the industrial revolution. I often think of this as a wonderful time of progress but the reality was that 10’s of thousands of people lost their jobs because they were replaced with machines. Many of the convicts that were shipped to Australia were guilty of things like stealing bread.

1851 was the start of the gold rush. This influx of free migrants and convicts from England resulted in wealth for many communities and a change of attitude towards convicts.

1901 Australia became federated as the Commonwealth of Australia.

There is still a majority of Australians who recently voted to remain a part of the British commonwealth. The Australia constitution sets out the country as a constitutional monarchy. The elected prime minister is head of government. But there is also an elected Governor General who answers to the British Crown. The Governor General has the authority to sack the prime minister and has done so in the not too distant past.

Our tour this morning included a bus tour of the city. Being a holiday the traffic was not bad.

We saw several places that were built for the 1956 Olympics and are still used today.

Our first stop was the botanical gardens. It was a beautiful place. We had a volunteer guide for the gardens. The weather was heating up but the shade provided by the lovely trees was refreshing. Today’s high as 105 degrees (that is fahrenheit, 105 celsius would make my blood boil).

We then went to the remembrance center. Having become a country in 1901 the citizens of Australia have served in every war since then.

It was very moving to see the people who had given all for the fight against the evils in the 20th century.

We returned to the ship and had lunch. Then some of us may have rested our eyes for a while.

After dinner we played some cards: Trash and then 3 up 3 Down. Lots of laughs.

A good day.