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A slow and lazy start to the day. Well it might have been a morning exit but I had to finish Helen's book. The YHA's own little cafe has funny hours and Sunday noon wasn't included so we trundled down the road to grab some lunch and hit the Internet shop. Their discounted 6, 12 and 24 hour blocks really were blocks (yes, plenty of people "attend" for 24 hours at once) so we sat down for a six hour run. Neither of us were particularly proficient, Helen getting lost in the online version of the BBC [BG!] Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2002 competition and I in determining a suitably desultory bid for some of Tornado's hardware. After some research on ebay I'm going to bid about the cost of one conputer (a Netra) for three plus a switch and a console server. I reckon one of two things will happen at the auction (on Tuesday/Wednesday): either the boxes will be swept up by a commercial organisation who'll bid a sensible market price (way out of my league) or nobody will be interested in which case I'll pick up. I suspect the former but you might as well chance your arm. I don't know what I'd do with them if I got them but that's another thing.

Not much else to say really bar that we left for a light snack and stumbled across a little in-walkway restaurant/cafe that is 24x7. Given how many shops in Australia still think that Saturday work is the work of the devil it's a pleasant surprise. The "always available" AU$6 pasta had mixed reports but the coffee was good.

Helen went off to do some washing and I tinkered on the net again. Demonstrating my ease with all the paraphenalia of the modern multimedia computer when, wearing my headphones and (naughtily) tuning into an Internet radio station, I wondered why it had gotten very loud indeed. The blokey behind the desk ran over to turn the speakers off which were clearly interrupting the sounds of various machine guns, shotguns, grenades etc. emanating from the surrounding cubicles. Obviously the headphones being plugged in doesn't cancel the speakers. Obviously.

I join Helen and we retire to consume our last bottle of Wolf Blass and pack up the contents of our (my!) bags sprawled across the bed. Sadly, in doing so, I knock my full mug of wine over the carpet. Sh..ugar! My first reaction is to drop a damp tea towel on the stain which it begins to soak up nicely. Then the double whammy: you're not supposed to be drinking in your room (and we now have a stinky carpet) and the hotel's tea towel has some unremoveable red stains in it. Time to retire.

Brisbane YHA S27.46660 E153.01282 Elev. 40m