Pacific Fair, this is where I am.

Ryan and I arrived here at this massive, ugly, green and purple neon-lighted shopping centre of tacky-ness many hours ago. It's quite large. There's a rumour going around between the two of us that this may actually be the largest mall in the southern hemisphere. If it is I'm pleased to say that I'm blogging from it. But this place has got nothing on Westfield Hornsby.

After the movie last night (which was good fun, not nearly as bad as we thought it might be) Ryan and I wandered back to the hostel. It was about a 30 minute walk. We wandered through a deserted fair gound, all closed up for the night, and by the sea with the almost-full moon glistening over the Pacific Ocean. It was very romantic and both of us wished that the other one was a woman for whom we had the deepest affection. Knowing that this was not the case we skipped the barefoot walk along the beach back home thinking that perhaps it may be inappropriate for two grown men on a night like that.

The bed (I have the top bunk) was as comfortable as one could hope for. Nothing to complain about. It was very hot in the room. We left the fan on all night, and I spent most of the night under a sheet, or at least the corner of a sheet. It was kinda like Martin Sheen in the beginning of Apocalypse Now although I wasn't naked, there was another person in the room with me, and there's no mirror in our room to smash when I get drunk.

Every so often there would be a big truck travel down the Pacific Highway at some monstrous speed, spewing it's angry, whine of engine noise into our little room, which would penetrate into my shallow dream world, waking me each time to wonder what the hell was going on. (Ek Ek)

In the morning I woke up to the kid outside my door shouting at his mum and dad. This confused me a little because this kid had an Australian accent and I was sure the kid across the corridor was Asian. After just waking up the answers to such questions don't always immediately present themselves to you. That was at 8am and I was pretty bummed that I woke up so early.

Ryan asked me then some question that was a continuation of last night's conversation about sorrow. It was way too deep for me after waking up 20 seconds before and I think I responded with a "Yeah". He then proceeded to ask another question of an even deeper nature. Not wanting to encourage the boy, I figured a less committed response might be useful, "Maybe". But this didn't deter him and he proceeded to ask something like "Do you think God cares who you marry or are there hundreds of people that you could marry, and you just pick one and then try and make the best of it, with the encouragement from God to enter into a differentiated, loving, selfless relationship that is the pinnacle of human love? Or perhaps we should just pick the people we marry as a further step to fairer economic rationalisation?" Or something like that, I was finding it difficult to follow, so the details may have blurred a bit. I decided the best response was to say nothing at all and to go back to sleep. I did this, waking up at 9:20am and the only question Ryan asked me then was "Do you want to go to the beach?". I handled this better and gave him an affirmative grunt.

We swam between the flags with all the other un-cool people on the beach. There was big, rip and the surf wasn't great but the water was warm and it was all very nice. On the way back home we met a man named Steve who seemed a little crazy. He said he was a beach comber, and he was 81 years old. This seemed a little strange because he looked a lot closer to 40. He also told us that the police were looking for him and that he had walked from Sydney to the Gold Coast in three days. Very impressive. When he found out I was two years younger than Ryan he pulled my chest hair and asked me what was doing with all that? He told us that his baby photos show him having a chest as hairy as mine, and as his (except less gray), from the day he was born. Steve really was an amazing guy.

We had breakfast at 11 in the courtyard then stayed there reading our books till 12:49. I nodded off a few times.

We set off for our days adventures after that. We visited the Currumbin World of Bees which was wonderful. They even had a "live bee show". But that didn't start for 40 minutes and as the rest of the World of Bees consisted only of about 3,000 different flavours of honey, magnets of men in bee handling suits with red beards and happy smiles and some stuffed bee toys, we decided to give it a miss.

Onwards we went and ended up here at Pacific Fair. We had some lunch then wandered around for a few hours waiting for the internet here at this cafe to get cheap. The extra three hours we spent here now means that we save $2.50 an hour! Bargain! While wandering we looked for Speedos for me to wear under my see-through boardshorts. Speedster Speedos, not the ugly old man ones. But I never thought I'd find myself in the Speedo section of any store. Well, lucky I've left the state to do it.

Now I have to pee. This will be my second pee here, a testament to the beautifully, long time we have spent in what is rumoured to be the biggest mall in the southern hemisphere.