Yesterday we were going out to dinner and after coming out of the bottle shop and walking down the street a man out of nowhere decided to do a very hard side-kick into the side of a lady's head outside the discount store. It was early in the evening, still light out in a busy street/walkway and he stumbled back after the kick and initially I thought they must be joking around. I was going to do something, but my wife said don't do anything, just move ahead, he's probably crazy. He just followed us for a bit and then moved across to a bench.
It was strange, no one really did anything to stop this guy, he just walked away. We were all witnesses to something pretty ugly and no one could step in to stop him really. It was like everyone was thinking the same thing, this guy is probably psychotic and could be capable of anything. He just hit a women in full view without seeming provocation. In days gone by a man hitting a women like this would attract severe retribution and perhaps it still should. My wife was obviously concerned for my safety and she made me question what I should do, change my instincts, which were to do something.
In this particular case, everyone around seemed to be questioning themselves whether or not to do something, some ladies near by at least rang the police straight away to come. I thought there might be CCTV footage somewhere at least where they would catch the guy.
That was our start to the night out, we then proceeded to dinner to meet friends and told them about our run in. My friend said straight away I would have bashed the guy "Who does that to a women" he said, and I thought straight away, I wish I had done the same. I said "Let's go now and find him", "It's probably not too late to find the guy."
Today, I rang the police to find out if it was reported and I was glad to hear the incident was reported and that they did have footage of the incident. Perhaps some justice will be served after the event, and they said the lady was okay, nothing broken, just a little shaken up.
Friday, 11 October 2013
truth about drugs
Drugs, pharmaceutical, recreational, street drugs, societies have been taking them through the ages at one time or another. In recent times, I have had to take pain killers and have enjoyed the calming affect on severe pain they have offered. Seems okay and perfectly alright when they are prescribed for pain you are exhibiting of very painful things happening to your body.
When younger, I knew people who took drugs recreationally, when it was the thing to do at dance parties. Ecstasy just hit the streets and lot's of people were taking them to get you to that place on a Saturday night at the latest dance party or rave in a location you had no previous knowledge of ever existing within your city limits. It seemed okay, we were young and that's what the young were doing at that time. It wasn't often for most people, it was just on those big occasions,you didn't need the feeling 24x7, only when the occasion called for an extra boost, or liftoff to make it a memorable night.
Now, for instance a friend's son, who is at this age and the friend is now experiencing what it must have been like for their parents, the worry if your kids are taking drugs or not, but it's a little different now. Now you know what they are doing, now it's a little more open with your child, if you are lucky, the dialogue of what they are doing, what they are taking when they go out to a club or an event. When they say they are taking ecstasy tabs into a big event, you think okay, be careful, try not to get caught, but they don't really want to listen.
You are still young, you say to them, what about if you get caught now, it means a criminal record, if you have a conviction against your name, that could be a bad thing. You might never be able to travel to certain countries, or find work there. Certain career choices might not be available to you, all for a quick thrill with legally outlawed substances that have penalties associated with their use and carriage upon person.
They (the kid's) know the risk they are taking and are still prepared to take this risk, unlike in our days of Hordern dance parties and raves which weren't policed, today they are. Drug sniffing dogs, police outside and inside venues, venue staff working with the police to tip them off. This all conspires to make the journey for our youth through these experimental times, much harder than it appeared or was for us.
What's strange about this, is with all this knowledge and all these risks, the kids are still doing it, despite all the warning's crackdowns, even instances of where their friends have been caught with harsh consequences. I don't think it's unique to us here in Australia either, but perhaps our young are paying harsher penalties for experimentation. How do drugs still get taken at these venues, how do they beat the sniffer dogs and searches? Is it a case of just sheer penetration of numbers of people taking them into these venues that they can't catch everyone of them. The kids are smart too, they get their girlfriends to wrap them up and put them you know where to beat the sniffer dogs. Is it just a token presence the police are giving at the venues and even they know they won't really be able to do much against it, catch the odd drug dealer and they are happy with those kind of results.
I would be happier obviously if we moved away from this drug, drinking culture that we have found ourselves in these days. I think you have to be careful when you make these blanket statements though, I think it's worse in certain age groups and even worse in some cities, in some Ice has crippled communities. It's hard, it really is, how did we get ourselves to this point, drugs cost and then they cost some more, on the people who take them and on society as a whole. Has the crackdown policing worked, or have things gotten worse?
On some level, I hope and trust that my friends son, is/was like the generation before and just going through a phase, a time or passage, that he is smart enough to navigate his way through successfully and not get caught or punished. He has some awareness, as does his dad and I have some awareness of what he is going through. We all went through the same kind of stuff. His father is there for him, and an example in a way to him, he got through and he's okay, a fully functioning adult, with no dependencies on drugs or alcohol. I really thought it would be easier by now and I am surprised to find it's not in a way, it's harder for kids and teenagers now, the same as us though, they don't open up too readily (these boys) so it's hard to gauge how prevalent it is right now amongst their peers.
In our circle of friends and their kids, we already know 2 kids of friends that have been caught with more than 1 or 2 tablets and they risk very harsh penalties and a criminal record.
In a positive way we are more open about this sort of thing and there is much more information about everything, yet at the same time there is more of a crackdown and criminalisation of it, which is out of whack when applied to all teenagers, who all seem to be doing, just what some of us did, nothing more (apart from ice), which is on the rise again.
When younger, I knew people who took drugs recreationally, when it was the thing to do at dance parties. Ecstasy just hit the streets and lot's of people were taking them to get you to that place on a Saturday night at the latest dance party or rave in a location you had no previous knowledge of ever existing within your city limits. It seemed okay, we were young and that's what the young were doing at that time. It wasn't often for most people, it was just on those big occasions,you didn't need the feeling 24x7, only when the occasion called for an extra boost, or liftoff to make it a memorable night.
Now, for instance a friend's son, who is at this age and the friend is now experiencing what it must have been like for their parents, the worry if your kids are taking drugs or not, but it's a little different now. Now you know what they are doing, now it's a little more open with your child, if you are lucky, the dialogue of what they are doing, what they are taking when they go out to a club or an event. When they say they are taking ecstasy tabs into a big event, you think okay, be careful, try not to get caught, but they don't really want to listen.
You are still young, you say to them, what about if you get caught now, it means a criminal record, if you have a conviction against your name, that could be a bad thing. You might never be able to travel to certain countries, or find work there. Certain career choices might not be available to you, all for a quick thrill with legally outlawed substances that have penalties associated with their use and carriage upon person.
They (the kid's) know the risk they are taking and are still prepared to take this risk, unlike in our days of Hordern dance parties and raves which weren't policed, today they are. Drug sniffing dogs, police outside and inside venues, venue staff working with the police to tip them off. This all conspires to make the journey for our youth through these experimental times, much harder than it appeared or was for us.
What's strange about this, is with all this knowledge and all these risks, the kids are still doing it, despite all the warning's crackdowns, even instances of where their friends have been caught with harsh consequences. I don't think it's unique to us here in Australia either, but perhaps our young are paying harsher penalties for experimentation. How do drugs still get taken at these venues, how do they beat the sniffer dogs and searches? Is it a case of just sheer penetration of numbers of people taking them into these venues that they can't catch everyone of them. The kids are smart too, they get their girlfriends to wrap them up and put them you know where to beat the sniffer dogs. Is it just a token presence the police are giving at the venues and even they know they won't really be able to do much against it, catch the odd drug dealer and they are happy with those kind of results.
I would be happier obviously if we moved away from this drug, drinking culture that we have found ourselves in these days. I think you have to be careful when you make these blanket statements though, I think it's worse in certain age groups and even worse in some cities, in some Ice has crippled communities. It's hard, it really is, how did we get ourselves to this point, drugs cost and then they cost some more, on the people who take them and on society as a whole. Has the crackdown policing worked, or have things gotten worse?
On some level, I hope and trust that my friends son, is/was like the generation before and just going through a phase, a time or passage, that he is smart enough to navigate his way through successfully and not get caught or punished. He has some awareness, as does his dad and I have some awareness of what he is going through. We all went through the same kind of stuff. His father is there for him, and an example in a way to him, he got through and he's okay, a fully functioning adult, with no dependencies on drugs or alcohol. I really thought it would be easier by now and I am surprised to find it's not in a way, it's harder for kids and teenagers now, the same as us though, they don't open up too readily (these boys) so it's hard to gauge how prevalent it is right now amongst their peers.
In our circle of friends and their kids, we already know 2 kids of friends that have been caught with more than 1 or 2 tablets and they risk very harsh penalties and a criminal record.
In a positive way we are more open about this sort of thing and there is much more information about everything, yet at the same time there is more of a crackdown and criminalisation of it, which is out of whack when applied to all teenagers, who all seem to be doing, just what some of us did, nothing more (apart from ice), which is on the rise again.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Near end of world scenario
I would like to expand on a previous philosophical concept idea around the potential use/misuse of technology to save mankind in a bleak future on the brink of extinction. If you like, it's kind of like a future war of the world's where technology versus God
history of supercomputers so far (2 - nil)
supercomputers vs Chess master (initially lost but then famously won, (Deep Blue vs Gary Kasparov)
supercomputers vs Jeopardy (US game show) (also initially lost but won, when new logic algorithms were added)
There's this overriding idea that technology and the spread of it and the power of it is only good and can only come to good. We are driving this idea every day, living this dream of short term obsolescence, whatever we buy today is obsolete by next year in a technology/computer sense.
What if this thinking is driving us to a point down the track that we cannot escape from or turn back, creating our own demise.
The NSA is already developing a huge data centre in the Utah dessert that can possibly hold all of the worlds data in a few years, for obvious reasons they believe this a good and desirous thing.
There is this philosophical idea too that perhaps in the future computers would be powerful enough to store all of mankind's information, details from the beginning of time, our very own human and animal DNA, our very essence and memories of every person that ever lived.
For me this is where the philosophical gets a bit lost to the practical side, exactly how this could be done is a mystery. The idea is, that at some point in this future time, there might be some knowledge that the end is nigh and that the computers could save mankind by rebooting us back to the beginning (pretend they exist out in space somewhere safe from the annihilation).
At the second of annihilation or what those religious might believe is the Epiphany or Parousia (or the 2nd coming), (you see the computers are self-aware in the future and predictive and they will be able to tell), they will powerful enough and enough enough power to generate a new future world, where the whole thing gets replayed over again even creating physical worlds think very large 3D or 4D printer.. (perhaps also in a new time dimension vortex).
Who knows, we could be going through the 2nd or 49th reboot already, how would you know? What if this happened and it prevented everyone's final ascension, if you like keeping us in a state of purgatory until the supercomputers die, for surely they would have to eventually. There could also be a duality of existence at play, where everyone did ascend and we also live our replayed lives out at the same time, unbeknownst to both selves.
It is a funny philosophical idea this, that someone came up with and I espoused on, which kind of shows the stupid faith that we put on computers and technology in general. More of a concern to me is the NSA and other US government agencies and there potential to start playing God, with the use of the first supercomputers (IBM) that can store all the world's flow of information, phone calls, emails, chat sessions, even the dark web. Now how do you stop that? That which is already legislated for.
history of supercomputers so far (2 - nil)
supercomputers vs Chess master (initially lost but then famously won, (Deep Blue vs Gary Kasparov)
supercomputers vs Jeopardy (US game show) (also initially lost but won, when new logic algorithms were added)
There's this overriding idea that technology and the spread of it and the power of it is only good and can only come to good. We are driving this idea every day, living this dream of short term obsolescence, whatever we buy today is obsolete by next year in a technology/computer sense.
What if this thinking is driving us to a point down the track that we cannot escape from or turn back, creating our own demise.
The NSA is already developing a huge data centre in the Utah dessert that can possibly hold all of the worlds data in a few years, for obvious reasons they believe this a good and desirous thing.
There is this philosophical idea too that perhaps in the future computers would be powerful enough to store all of mankind's information, details from the beginning of time, our very own human and animal DNA, our very essence and memories of every person that ever lived.
For me this is where the philosophical gets a bit lost to the practical side, exactly how this could be done is a mystery. The idea is, that at some point in this future time, there might be some knowledge that the end is nigh and that the computers could save mankind by rebooting us back to the beginning (pretend they exist out in space somewhere safe from the annihilation).
At the second of annihilation or what those religious might believe is the Epiphany or Parousia (or the 2nd coming), (you see the computers are self-aware in the future and predictive and they will be able to tell), they will powerful enough and enough enough power to generate a new future world, where the whole thing gets replayed over again even creating physical worlds think very large 3D or 4D printer.. (perhaps also in a new time dimension vortex).
Who knows, we could be going through the 2nd or 49th reboot already, how would you know? What if this happened and it prevented everyone's final ascension, if you like keeping us in a state of purgatory until the supercomputers die, for surely they would have to eventually. There could also be a duality of existence at play, where everyone did ascend and we also live our replayed lives out at the same time, unbeknownst to both selves.
It is a funny philosophical idea this, that someone came up with and I espoused on, which kind of shows the stupid faith that we put on computers and technology in general. More of a concern to me is the NSA and other US government agencies and there potential to start playing God, with the use of the first supercomputers (IBM) that can store all the world's flow of information, phone calls, emails, chat sessions, even the dark web. Now how do you stop that? That which is already legislated for.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Lost in translation - More like totally messed up in translation
My first post was called Greek Grandma, probably not my best post grammatically and most likely why it's meaning and content gets totally messed up during Google translate from English to German then back to English.
Here is an extract from the original post:
"You see i know her Grand daughter, her grand daughter is my wife's younger sister's child. My wife's younger sister was married to the Greek Grandmother's son for a while (and she had a child together with him). They have now been apart for a number of years and the Greek Grandma has probably not seen her grandchild for some time. " ( Note: i have had to change this so it translates better than the original).
This is what it becomes through the Google translate tool:
You see, I know her grand-daughter, her granddaughter, my wife is the younger sister's child. My wife's sister was once the Greek Grandma's son (had a child together) have married and apart for some time and the Greek grandmother probably has not seen her granddaughter for some time.
I was wondering why I had a number of German blog followers, perhaps of the transgender variety given the changed content of this post. I also wonder now, what the German translation might be of some of my other posts. I would love to know from a German person if the Google translate tool is accurate in this case and how this post went over with you.
Given the global nature of bloggers and posts, it kind of does make you question what the perception might be when your posts are translated rightly (probably a rare thing) or wrongly and how this could impact your following and in this case potentially the reason for following. Those Germans must have been thinking this Australian has one crazy messed up family! To those people, I am sorry to disappoint you.
If you are German and you are reading my posts, I would love to hear from you in the comments section if any of what I said has an element of truth or not in regards to how you view these posts in German.
Here is an extract from the original post:
"You see i know her Grand daughter, her grand daughter is my wife's younger sister's child. My wife's younger sister was married to the Greek Grandmother's son for a while (and she had a child together with him). They have now been apart for a number of years and the Greek Grandma has probably not seen her grandchild for some time. " ( Note: i have had to change this so it translates better than the original).
This is what it becomes through the Google translate tool:
You see, I know her grand-daughter, her granddaughter, my wife is the younger sister's child. My wife's sister was once the Greek Grandma's son (had a child together) have married and apart for some time and the Greek grandmother probably has not seen her granddaughter for some time.
I was wondering why I had a number of German blog followers, perhaps of the transgender variety given the changed content of this post. I also wonder now, what the German translation might be of some of my other posts. I would love to know from a German person if the Google translate tool is accurate in this case and how this post went over with you.
Given the global nature of bloggers and posts, it kind of does make you question what the perception might be when your posts are translated rightly (probably a rare thing) or wrongly and how this could impact your following and in this case potentially the reason for following. Those Germans must have been thinking this Australian has one crazy messed up family! To those people, I am sorry to disappoint you.
If you are German and you are reading my posts, I would love to hear from you in the comments section if any of what I said has an element of truth or not in regards to how you view these posts in German.
Friday, 27 September 2013
light
Warm, fuzzy, phantasmagorical glowing rays of bright light shining through, around, over, abounding, piercing, pulsating, unwavering escaping the boundaries of time and place. Origins of these rays of light come from a huge mass that sucks up and consumes and Lords' over 98% of our solar systems mass, this raging, tumultuous massive ball begins life, it gives life to the dark, it seeks the dark out on its unwavering mission and wants to rid the darkness away, banish that corrosive darkness from it's very existence. It spawns, burns, erupts and breathes new life form into being, turning on the solar, providing a natural organic force. We are but a tiny little spec drawn into it's overriding, ever frothing, boiling and renewing mass, like a moth to the light, we want to get closer and closer to it's glowing and giving warmth, even when we know that if we get to close it can burn and destroy us.
In each of us this DNA exists, we are all made up of stars, even if we might be living in the gutter and provides the same nourishing essence.... and renewable energy. Our planets lifeforms and our own bodies and lives over time have adapted to tune into and turn onto this life giving force. Seek out the light, let it penetrate through to your soul, caress you and turn away the dark side, dark forces that may be just as alluring, seeking and penetrating as the light forces that abound the solar systems, galaxies, universes and hereto unspeakable unknowns.
In each of us this DNA exists, we are all made up of stars, even if we might be living in the gutter and provides the same nourishing essence.... and renewable energy. Our planets lifeforms and our own bodies and lives over time have adapted to tune into and turn onto this life giving force. Seek out the light, let it penetrate through to your soul, caress you and turn away the dark side, dark forces that may be just as alluring, seeking and penetrating as the light forces that abound the solar systems, galaxies, universes and hereto unspeakable unknowns.
Thursday, 26 September 2013
dark recesses of time
The utter stark darkness, oppressively black and unfiltered, unmassed and withdrawn, pulling back hard with a grossness of gravity, long forgotten remains of what it contains and it's purpose or raison d'etre. This is how i think of dark forgotten corners of the universe, multiverse, fabric of time and space, like the dark foreboding corner rooms covered in layers of cobwebs and dust over eons of time, of an old and forgotten dis-used haunted house. So to the dark corner recesses of haunted memories from past, hidden from view of the mind's eye, protecting you from what lies there... too far away and distant to contemplate searching and pulling out from the dark corners to inspect and pore over. Better to stay there in the darkness far away, unknowing, long forgotten, gathering more darkness and dust moving further away from the light. A tiny glimmer, ray of light perhaps shining out of some sunnier spectrum casts itself upon something and it triggers a hint, a clue of what can be remembered if you choose to pull off the cobwebs, dust off the grime, search into the dark, darkly darkness of it.
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
change of plans
We were travelling in August at the same time the Olympic games were on in Sydney. My wife, son who was nearly 7 and I caught up with friends in Tunisia, in Tunis and we all decided to go on a 5 day bus tour through parts of Tunisia. At the end of the trip we were going to go to Jerba and catch up with my friend who couldn't come on the bus tour with us. The language barrier was a little tricky as they speak Arabic and French as their main languages, German and Italian being the other languages they know, with English being right down on the list.
We had the bus greet us at the designated spot and met our Tunisian driver and the other 2 tourists taking the bus with us, a young Norwegian couple. We set off on the long drive and stopped off at our first city after Sousse, El Jem, that had an amazing Roman Colosseum that was relatively intact. Our tour guide was a local Tunisian guy who could speak French and English. The majority of the people on the tour were French, so he would talk in French first and then in English for a few of us, including the Norwegians.
The next stop was Sfax which is a seaside town further South.
It was a memorable road trip through the countryside of Tunisia, apart from the coastal parts of this country the inland areas are fairly barren especially on the salt plains which we drove through, for a full day's driving. Just looking out at the horizon that stretches on forever, looking for mirages. I remember seeing palm trees and an oasis that wasn't really there at all, very weird.
After hours of driving the bus stopped at an undergound place that was one of the scenes from the Star Wars film and we had lunch there. There were a few side excursions on the tour and sometimes my wife and her friend wouldn't go as they didn't seem to be getting on with the Tunisian tour guide man, who they thought were favouring the French over us English speaking folk. One afternoon tour was another Star Wars location that was in part of the Sahara desert and we all decided not to go on this trip, including the Norwegian friends we made. We stayed in the hotel instead and drank cocktails by the pool and swam and took it easy in the sweltering Sahara heat. Of course when the French tourists came back they raved about the tour, and I remember feeling regret that I didn't go, they all said it was an amazing sunset.
I think that night after dinner I decided to watch some of the Olympics on the TV in the hotel with some of the French people on the tour, I went by myself and the girls did something by themselves. I think Thorpe was swimming a final in the 200M or 400M freestyle and the French were asking me about Thorpe and Australia and I was asking them a bit about where they were from. They found it quite incredible that we had chosen to go on holiday while the Olympics were on in our home city, which i guess you can understand, I felt a little regret that we had done this, but still had a great holiday.
It was around this time that my wife's friend got a call from her Tunisian boyfriend to say he could meet up with us somewhere now as he could get away from his family duties now. After much discussion it was decided that we would cut the trip short and try and get a driver to drive us to Jerba, a small island, kind of like the Gold Coast of Tunisia, with casino's and big hotels. After a while we managed to score a driver who would take us half way across the Tunisian countryside for around $100 Australian which was a pretty good deal really. I wasn't that happy to cut short our tour as there was 2 or 3 days left on it and I thought it was a little extravagant to give those days up as we had paid a lot for the tour. It was pointless to argue against 2 women, i was on a hiding to nothing. They continued to argue with the tour guide who was peeved we were leaving the tour and I think this pissed the women off further and it ended with a heated conversation between our Tunisian friend and him in Tunisian, where he told him off basically. It wasn't a graceful way to end our tour experience, but it was memorable. I think they were more glad than I was we were leaving the tour, I couldn't understand why they just didn't try to get along with everyone.
We had another long day of driving, back past the salt plains, through the Sahara and to the coast and to the ferry that would take us over to Jerba. We spoke to a nice Libyan couple on the ferry who spoke really good English and were also going on a holiday to Jerba. Meanwhile both our sons made friends with the captain of the car ferry and were even wearing his Captain's hat at one stage and he didn't seem to mind being harassed by 7 year old rascals. It was a wonderful thing about Tunisia how great they are with kids and they have all the time in the world for them and they seem to really know how to appreciate family and have the most fun together.
After a little while driving around, found a hotel eventually the one that our Tunisian friend said to try first we didn't really like and we ended up going for something a little more upmarket. I think we had a day by ourselves before our Tunisian friend turned up. The change of plans turned out okay in the end as we had a few more memorable days in Jerba, riding camels and horses on the beach, visiting markets, lounging by the pool surrounded by bodacious beautiful bronzed Italian bodies, like something out of a Sabrina (Girls, Girls, Girls) video clip.
We had the bus greet us at the designated spot and met our Tunisian driver and the other 2 tourists taking the bus with us, a young Norwegian couple. We set off on the long drive and stopped off at our first city after Sousse, El Jem, that had an amazing Roman Colosseum that was relatively intact. Our tour guide was a local Tunisian guy who could speak French and English. The majority of the people on the tour were French, so he would talk in French first and then in English for a few of us, including the Norwegians.
The next stop was Sfax which is a seaside town further South.
It was a memorable road trip through the countryside of Tunisia, apart from the coastal parts of this country the inland areas are fairly barren especially on the salt plains which we drove through, for a full day's driving. Just looking out at the horizon that stretches on forever, looking for mirages. I remember seeing palm trees and an oasis that wasn't really there at all, very weird.
After hours of driving the bus stopped at an undergound place that was one of the scenes from the Star Wars film and we had lunch there. There were a few side excursions on the tour and sometimes my wife and her friend wouldn't go as they didn't seem to be getting on with the Tunisian tour guide man, who they thought were favouring the French over us English speaking folk. One afternoon tour was another Star Wars location that was in part of the Sahara desert and we all decided not to go on this trip, including the Norwegian friends we made. We stayed in the hotel instead and drank cocktails by the pool and swam and took it easy in the sweltering Sahara heat. Of course when the French tourists came back they raved about the tour, and I remember feeling regret that I didn't go, they all said it was an amazing sunset.
I think that night after dinner I decided to watch some of the Olympics on the TV in the hotel with some of the French people on the tour, I went by myself and the girls did something by themselves. I think Thorpe was swimming a final in the 200M or 400M freestyle and the French were asking me about Thorpe and Australia and I was asking them a bit about where they were from. They found it quite incredible that we had chosen to go on holiday while the Olympics were on in our home city, which i guess you can understand, I felt a little regret that we had done this, but still had a great holiday.
It was around this time that my wife's friend got a call from her Tunisian boyfriend to say he could meet up with us somewhere now as he could get away from his family duties now. After much discussion it was decided that we would cut the trip short and try and get a driver to drive us to Jerba, a small island, kind of like the Gold Coast of Tunisia, with casino's and big hotels. After a while we managed to score a driver who would take us half way across the Tunisian countryside for around $100 Australian which was a pretty good deal really. I wasn't that happy to cut short our tour as there was 2 or 3 days left on it and I thought it was a little extravagant to give those days up as we had paid a lot for the tour. It was pointless to argue against 2 women, i was on a hiding to nothing. They continued to argue with the tour guide who was peeved we were leaving the tour and I think this pissed the women off further and it ended with a heated conversation between our Tunisian friend and him in Tunisian, where he told him off basically. It wasn't a graceful way to end our tour experience, but it was memorable. I think they were more glad than I was we were leaving the tour, I couldn't understand why they just didn't try to get along with everyone.
We had another long day of driving, back past the salt plains, through the Sahara and to the coast and to the ferry that would take us over to Jerba. We spoke to a nice Libyan couple on the ferry who spoke really good English and were also going on a holiday to Jerba. Meanwhile both our sons made friends with the captain of the car ferry and were even wearing his Captain's hat at one stage and he didn't seem to mind being harassed by 7 year old rascals. It was a wonderful thing about Tunisia how great they are with kids and they have all the time in the world for them and they seem to really know how to appreciate family and have the most fun together.
After a little while driving around, found a hotel eventually the one that our Tunisian friend said to try first we didn't really like and we ended up going for something a little more upmarket. I think we had a day by ourselves before our Tunisian friend turned up. The change of plans turned out okay in the end as we had a few more memorable days in Jerba, riding camels and horses on the beach, visiting markets, lounging by the pool surrounded by bodacious beautiful bronzed Italian bodies, like something out of a Sabrina (Girls, Girls, Girls) video clip.
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