Tuesday April 11, 2006 4:30 PM Bagotville NSW 2477

A. Afternoon Musings

4:30 PM We are settled into our new home for the coming month. It is really quite a change from the unit on the coast. The birds are all around us: Grey Fantails, Rufous Fantails, Brown Thornbills, Lewin's Honeyeaters and Eastern Yellow Robins abound.

We had no difficulty setting up the internet connection and quickly made room for our foodstuffs in the refrigerator. It only took a couple of hours to get everything organized. Then we made a quick trip to Ballina to see if the huge surfing waves were still up (up to 5 meters high) but they were not. We did pick up a few groceries and are now organized for the next few days. The coming weekend is Easter and the Roots & Blues festival is on at Byron Bay so it will be a good time to stay away from the coast.

There is no breeze at the moment and it is incredibly quiet. Lovely.

Chores: Pick up keys and move in to the house in Bagotville.

C. Actual

7:10 PM I have finished reading Bruce Chatwin's "What Am I Doing Here?".

Here are four more quotes from the book:

• "With the calculated meanness of scholars they have picked the brains and failed to acknowledge their source." [p. 157]
• "Already, at the age of eighteen, he [Tolstoy] was keeping a diary of his thoughts and 'Rules for Life'..." [p. 174]
• "... and in Sherpa-country every track is marked with cairns and prayer-flags, reminding you that Man's real home is not a house, but the Road, and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot." [p. 273]
• "Anyone who reads around the travel books of the Thirties must, in the end, conclude that Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana is the masterpiece." [p. 286]

D. Reflection