Day 6

Before I get to Sunday, I forgot to mention that on Saturday when we went with the ferry for our scenic little trip from Manly to Circular Quay, I had one of those moments... After taking a leisurely walk down to the terminal, the first alarm sounded to indicate that the ferry was about to leave, so we rushed up to the booth, tossed our change under the glass into the booth and the friendly assistant quickly issued our tickets, which we grabbed and ran towards the ferry. The terminal works like a tube turnstile - you slip your ticket in a front slot as you enter and it releases the turnstile and pops the ticket out on the top. Tony, Mira and Carmen slipped quickly through, the alarm growing more and more urgent, while my turnstile rejected my ticket, I vaguely aware that the assistant in the booth had shouted something at me, which was muted because of the glass. I thought she said: 'The ferry is leaving!' so I threw a flitting, desperate smile of acknowledgement and frantically thrust my ticket into the machine which again and spat it out, and I heard the women shout something again - louder but still muted. 'Yes, I know, you freaking moron,' I swore under my breath at her, as I frantically stabbed my ticket repeatedly at the stubborn turnstile: 'The ferry is leaving - I can also hear the 300 decibel alarm!' I glanced for a millisecond and saw Tony and Mira and Carmen looking out at me, puzzled, through the windows of the ferry? I had a momentary flashback to Paris. Then I heard the woman in the booth throw open her window and shout loudly:
'Hey!'
'What?' I whirled on her.
She dropped her voice and said simply:
'Turn your ticket around...'
So I did. And the turnstile opened and I boarded the ferry just in time not daring to look back.