Aug 17 - 18. Manly Trees And Beetroot Beefburgers.

Sean Taylor runs a first-rate magic store in Sydney. He had the spiffing idea of getting me to give an extended magic lecture lasting about two and a half hours. I covered three main areas: (i) mentalism on television, (ii) mentalism anywhere, and (iii) cold reading applied to mentalism. Sean and I hoped it would be an in-depth session for a small number of magi with a serious interest, and overall I think it was very successful. Sean organised it spendidly, and the 'back room' at his impressive magic store was the perfect venue.

Afterwards, Sean took us all to a trendy 'gourmet' pizza place. Somewhat inevitably, this evolved or degenerated (take your pick) into a close-up demonstration session, for which purpose some nearby diners found themselves cast as my audience. All I can say is they seemed to enjoy it!

The following day began with a visit to a travel agent to book a trip to what is called either Ayer's Rock or Uluru. Like most Brits, I had no idea what this would actually entail or how far away it was. I just strolled into the Norwest Flight Centre and placed myself in the very capable hands of Christie.

It wasn't easy to fit this trip in with the rest of my Australian itinerary, but I just fed Christie all the constraints and let her solve all the problems. For the record, she did this in an impressively efficient and helpful manner, and deserves a hefty pay rise.

This having been taken care of, I enjoyed a morning of sight-seeing with Peter Rodgers and Barry Williams. Barry is Chairman of the Australian Skeptics, as well as a larger than life raconteur and a brilliantly funny, incisive writer. They took me to North Head so I could enjoy the view looking across to South Head and Sydney Harbour. It's hard to convey why this is worth doing without a map and more details, so I've created this separate page.

Having savoured the magnificent views from North Head, we drove to Manly Beach for lunch. The Australians are perfectly well aware that a name like Manly Beach sounds funny to visitors. With a place name like 'Manly', it's hard not to say things that sound amusing in a juvenile sort of way. The joke tends to wear off after a day or two, although I confess I smirked inwardly every time someone referred to the Manly ferry, which I envisaged as a ferry full of show-off body-builders going through their ridiculous posturings.

The restaurant menu was a little on the bizarre side, at least to these British eyes. For example, 'beefburger' looked okay, but then I read the small print and saw this was a beefburger made with beetroot. Foolishly, I passed up this once in a lunchtime opportunity.

I liked the trees along the Manly Beech itself and took some photos, and on the way home was delighted to get this photo, from inside Peter's car, of a lorry.

In the evening I gave another magic lecture, this time a more customary hour or so in duration, organisedf by Bill Walsh.

Aug 19. Cat, Chat And Climb.

A packed day of touristy experiences, all of which would probably have been better in sunny weather. As it was August, it was Summer back in England but very much Winter here in Australia. I don't understand how this works, but from my school days I know it has something to do with a tilted apple going round a yellow beach ball. That, and the fact that the universe is designed specifically to thwart my personal happiness.

First I enjoyed a trip on the River Cat from Parramatta to Sydney Harbour. A River Cat is a neatly efficient ferry service which the locals use as a popular alternative to the highly congested roads leading into the city. In bleak weather the River Cat wasn't that much of a thrill, to be honest. However, at least I got some decent photos out of it, including a remarkable photo of people climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Having reached Sydney city centre, I bought some postcards (isn't this exciting!) and had a wander around busy central thoroughfares such as George Street. One thing I did like was the noise the pedestrian crossings make when it's time to walk. It's a very spooky sort of noise, like a science-fiction movie when the Villain swiches on the Death Ray.

While I was wandering around a book store, a television person phoned me. He wanted to talk about the possibility of my doing a quick TV interview the next morning for Channel 9, in order to promote the Skeptic's Convention. "So how does cold reading work?", he asked me. I think he honestly expected this was something I would explain (I wouldn't) and could explain in 30 seconds while standing on a noisy street in the heart of the city. He had also visited this here website, seen the Television Miracles, and wondered if we could replicate the stunt I did for the Leeza show. This was a completely inappropriate and impractical idea. In all other respects, it was a perfectly productive call.

I decided to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, principally because I figured I'd regret not doing if I didn't. It was quite an amazing experience, and very well-organised. If you are heartily sick of the photos strewn all over this site, you will be relieved to know there are precious few pertaining to this adventure because I couldn't take my camera with me. In fact I couldn't take anything with me. I had to remove all personal belongings and get into a weatherproof coverall which is sealed at the extremities, rather like a space suit. More information about the climb, and my one photo, here.

> > > Continued in Part 3

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