Day Two

I wake up at 4a.m. and there are kookaburras in the trees across the street laughing raucously. Later, as the sun rises I hear my favorite sound in the world, the inimitable yet unmistakable warbling of magpies.
I have to drive behind my Mum as we take the rental car back to Coolangatta. It is raining and the drive is a bit of a daunting prospect - a manual transmission car sitting on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the street, but I do it. It feels great.





















It rains and rains and rains. The streets flood and in places the river bursts it banks and cuts off traffic. This is enourmously good news for a drought striken country but people complain anyway. Inside the mailbox, probably getting some respite from the weather, sits this fellow.
















In the afternoon we walk into the town, Murwillumbah. I use the computer at the library, and buy an adaptor for my laptop so I can use it here.
















I admire the lovely houses and buildings, taking pictures surreptitiously so that people won't think I'm casing their houses. As it turns out Australians are extremely suspcious and security concious - much more than most people in know in the States.





















My cat, Pandora, whom I bought as a feisty and feral bundle of black fur when I was eighteen and living away from home for the first time came home from the cattery where she had been living while my Mum moved house.
It is amazing to see her, and Mum says she thinks Pandy remembers me because she usually won't come around when there are strangers in the house but she sleeps on my bed. Hard to imagine she could remember me, but she is a cat.