4.28 million + 5

Well, I have finally made it to Sydney - the last stop on my Australian adventure & the penultimate stop on my global adventure.

Although Australia has a population of 20 million, around a quarter of Australians live in or around Sydney. As I have witnessed over the last two months the centre of Australia is deserted with all the major connorbations lining the coast.

So Sydney is a huge & sprawling city, & temporarily you can add five more to the millions of people that already live here. After two months travelling on my own I finnally have some British friends coming to join me. Tomorrow Zoe arrives - Indonesia didn't work out for her in the end, so while she plans what to do next she is coming out to Oz to reunite the old Ruteng party crew!

The following day Kerensa & her husband arrive. Kren took over some of my responsibilities at NFER but now she is starting an adventure (& maybe a blog?) of her own.

Then finally on Tuesday the famous blog commentator Mr DT arrives - I guess someone else will have to post comments on my rantings for the next few weeks!

I'm really excited that these people who have played such a significant part in my life over this past year are coming to help me end my trip in style - Sydney wont know what's hit it!

No news is good news

I thought, before I went away, that I would miss the 24 hour news culture that we have in the west: waking up to the Today Program on Radio 4; keeping an eye on the BBC news feed while at work; watching the 10 o'clock news before bed. But I haven't really missed it at all.

Firstly my experience living in a developing country showed me how selective the western media is... life & death going unreported because it is too far away, geographically & (maybe more significantly) politically.

You also come to realise, when you don't have your news drip fed to you, that most news is no news... look back over a weeks headlines & what has really happened of significance? Or, in my case, look back over a year of missed news & has anything really happened at all? A new Big Brother winner & the people he/she has slept with? A flood in the north of England which did not kill anyone or destroy anythink irrapairably? A new prime minister, an event that was known so far in advance that it almost seems ironic to call its eventual advent news.

At the moment Australian news is dominated by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. World leaders are converging on Sydney & the ensuing security lockdowns & public protests are playing havoc with my travel plans! So once again I am keeping an eye on the news, & I guess that's the nub of it. News is what is important to you - news of friends & family; news of filmstars or celebs; news of third world countries in crisis - & what is important to you constantly changes. And what is important to me right now is that Bush buggers off out of Australia & lets me enjoy the final weeks of my holiday in peace!