1) There is less sugar in candy and soft drinks in Australia. Tastes better… and makes me wonder – why do the same manufacturers sweeten their U.S. products so much more? Do we really prefer sugar over flavor?

2) One reads a lot of magazines while waiting in airports or on the plane and I noticed that a lot of lifestyle magazines depict modern apartments and houses without any soft surfaces. What I mean is that there are no rugs, carpet, wall-coverings, window-coverings… looks nice and clean, BUT – they must not like music, because in a place like that music would sound quite awful… too much reverb and echo.

3) Fitzroy Garden, next to the Hilton in Melbourne, has a very large and very cute possum population. At Night one sees many hotel guests feeding them bread. I wonder how many generations it took for possums to learn to run towards people instead of away from them. Interesting factoid: there is no rabies in Australia.

4) I am told by a crew member that a ‘nude nut with a Seattle toilet seat’ is a bald man with a goatee…