Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Ancient encounters

It's Thursday today, therefore plumber son number two has finished a week traipsing about some of the touristic sights of Sicily with his girlfriend. We've had a couple of SMS messages during this time. Early during his visit we had a brief message from the Palermo end which said they were enjoying Sicily, but they had already encountered some Mafia types. He didn't elaborate. Another message came a few days later from Catania on the eastern side where he was getting ready to view Mount Etna volcano close up. Yesterday we had a message from Segesta which is in the middle of the island, back towards the west again. He was very impressed by the ancient 'Roman' ruins and suggested we look them up on Google Earth, which we did. He might have learned by now that they are Greek ruins, which are older than the Roman era. Some of the best Greek ruins are in Sicily; and some of the best Roman ruins are in North Africa.

So today my son should be back in Dublin, Ireland where he'll be slacking off for another week before coming home. Too bad for him that there's a tourism feature in our local newspaper today on all the best things to see and do in Dublin. Still, he has an Irish girlfriend so they will probably figure things out.

Our teenage daughter number two has been having an adventure too. For the past couple of days she's been on an ocean kayaking expedition with a team of boys from her high school. I've been a bit nervous of this one. Not because she's the only girl. There was a young male surfer killed by a shark on the east coast a couple of days ago, and a surfing competition a couple of hundred kilometres south of where she is was cancelled yesterday because a huge shark was hanging about. I'll be glad when she gets home later today.

I've just learned from my wife that the school term finishes tomorrow. We'll have the kids home for two weeks while the teachers loaf about. The militant unionists amongst them are still whining about how tough they have it. Meanwhile my plumber son number four (the one who had an emergency appendectomy last month) and his teacher girlfriend are flying off to Melbourne tomorrow night for a week of shopping and sightseeing. Teachers sure do have a tough life - not.

My mention of ancient Rome has reminded me that earlier this week I acquired an ancient Roman fibula on eBay for 99 cents. A fibula was the Roman equivalent of a safety pin and was used for holding togas and such stuff in place. Quite a lot of them seem to be put up on eBay by dealers in ancient coins and other antiquities. (Grave robbers.) I'd put a minimal bid on the fibula and forgotten about it until an automated email came through saying it was time to pay the 99 cents plus three bucks postage.

The dealer's blurb said it had been found in the Holy land near Jerusalem. Holy mackerel! It might have belonged to Jesus? On the other hand...

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!