October 11 2023		INDEX
Click for next image		I think I spotted George Galloway in his trademark fedora with a camera team on the balcony of one of the restaurants in Bondi Beach. It was hard to tell, but whoever it was was either broadcasting or being interviewed. It is hard to believe it could have been George because British politicians (Galloway is a former MP) usually come to Australian beaches to fake suicide and George has a handsome young family, so he's hardly likely to be in that category. The sea today at Bondi was bloody cold, not that I went swimming (which seemingly was banned since there were no flags displayed, the warning sign). The no flag rule is part of the complex etiquette of Australian beaches. Swimming was banned but there were gangs of surfers dressed in identical wetsuits, colour coded to show the rank of the wearer. These were surf schools and the pupils wore one sort of costume while the teachers had another. I'm used to beaches that ban dogs (a good idea in my view) but Bondi is the only one I've come across that bans smoking. Generally the Australians have a very strange attitude to what we used to call (and may still call) the evil weed. There are lots of smoking shops in Sydney but you hardly ever see anyone smoking.
INDEX Jonathan Brind	October 11, 2023