I'd planned extensive travel in 2020- totally out the window due to Covid (and health). Planned a probable last visit to see old friends in the UK with lots of side trips.
Now 2021 looks the same.
Sydney has gone into Lockdown again. Interstate travel is banned.
I even contemplated a visit to
"Surfers Paradise" that ghastly glitzy Gold Coast holiday city where 30 story apartment blocks dominate the skyline, built scarily right on the beach (a truly spectacular beach).
Or Byron Bay to catch up with old mates
Chris & Liam Hemsworth (
just joking but I did know their parents once and visited them a few times in the Byron hinterland and noticed the good looking blonde kiddies running around. If I'd known they would become Hollywood superstars I would have been more attentive
).
At least I could gaze over the fences of the mega mansions at perhaps diminutive
Zac Efron sunbathing. Maybe even run into
Matt Damon who is looking for a house to buy, on the beach which he loves as the stars flee Los Angeles.Maybe Permanently.
Christ I'd settle for a glimpse of
Liam Neeson who someone tells me they saw shopping in the local Hippie Market last week (Rich Faux Hippies with factories in China).
# I'm yet to spot
Sascha Baron Cohen & Isla Fisher who have bought a Bondi flat but everyone wears frigging masks and all look the same to me.
But the fab Byron Bay beach has just been washed away completely in a storm a few days ago and ghastly vile RICH people have snapped up any old ramshackle shack for $Millions as the locals eagerly cash in what was once a beautiful whaling town of working people (I think the whales which you could spot any day have abandoned the place)
It was such a lovely town when my pal from Shropshire opened the local Byron Echo newspaper with his last $2000 and turned into a fortune which Irish media magnate Cameron O'Reilly offered him $5M for after 10 years of publishing.
Sadly my pal died in a car accident before he could take up the offer. I worked for him when holidaying there- once covering a gig by Public Image and had the pleasure of throwing a drink over
Johnny Rotten / John Lydon because he's a c*nt.
This is the world over..charming little villages are now invaded by incredibly dull ultra-rich folk wrecking the atmosphere & driving out interesting classes of (poorer) residents.
Paul Hogan is to blame for wrecking Byron Bay as he first noticed the potential, built a
McMansion there (eventually subdivided for $30M). He then sold the local hotel he built for $20M before pissing off to LA. He made more money from property development than his films and he made about $40M from those flicks.
# I'm reliably told the Hemsworths are total
Bogans ( Oz talk or
Chavs for our British readers). Yes I know I'm a snob and I'm proud of it.
Melbourne? Thought of a weekend there. Love the place. Lovely people, think there's a million Greeks there, So European with 100s of brilliant restaurants and cafes which makes Sydney look like what is - a trashy corrupt sea-side town once described as the "Chicago of the Southern Hemisphere " due to it's institutionalized corruption since the Brits established it.
Now eager to go but boredom setting in. I'm told I can travel to New Guinea but I'll give it a miss.
Bali has shut down- always good for a week..you can't get to it and airlines are charging
$10,000 for a one way ticket to
Bangkok - normally about $900 but that's even if planes are flying. Qantas has parket 40 jets in the desert at Uluru and more in Colorado.
What a life !
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