Sunset on the Brisbane River IMG_1285

Sunset on the Brisbane River IMG_1285
Originally uploaded by MargaretsFamily

A long time since I posted. I managed to leave my camera in Sydney.

So what's been happening? Well, I've been sorting out (or more to the point, not sorting out) what my PhD's about. I got quite excited, but my supervisor in WA is not enthused, and want's me to do what I think is pretty much a load of shit.. We shall see.

And in the meantime, just before semester one ended, a mob of evangelist students from Missouri took the ferry. And sought to evade paying the fare. I watched them from the time they got on at North Quay and listened to their conversation. "Do you think we don't have to pay, since we haven't got a seat?". (No attempt to find out) I motioned to one lad and told him that you paid your fare by going inside. He ignored me.

I was getting madder and madder. Tourists rich enough to cross half the earth, but not prepared to pay their way when they got there. Eventually, after Guyatt Park, one of the students asked me to take their photo. I said yes, if they paid their fare. They then came up with some very specious excuses: "we're poor students", "we were going to pay when we got off" (Was the ferry going to wait while they finally found out where to pay, and all 10 of them paid?)

I remain outraged. To come to another country and claim that they didn't know they needed to pay. They didn't know because they didn't want to find out.

They were no ornament to their country, their church or their creed.