NEW IN NEWTOWN

WEDNESDAY 22nd DECEMBER

  Mark went off in the morning to Canterbury to go to the races.  He noticed a well dressed man at Canterbury looking lost who asked him which way were the races.  Mark pointed him in the right direction and walked with him to the course.  It turned out that the chap had a part share in a horse that was running, and got Mark a members' pass into the enclosure.  Carefully observing the punters, Mark spotted one well dressed gentleman who placed $2000 on a horse to win.  Mark shot off to another bookie and placed a bet on the same horse.  It duly won which got the lad off to a good start and he came away from the meeting some $200 to the good.

  I in the meantime checked out flights to Ballina and answered my e-mails before sauntering forth into the big wide world.  I decided to go to Newtown and check out if the Egg Records Shop was still there.  It was.

It had quite an interesting selection of 50/60s LP's including an Aussie release of Duane Eddy's Roarin' Twangies on Summit (SRA 250-573) with a cover I have never seen before.  (Of any intereset Jim?). However the prospect of lugging LP's half way round the world deterred me from purchasing any of the albums.  However a Turtles CD did catch my eye.

  Newton is akin to Camden Town in London.  Lesbians and gays stroll hand in hand, there are plenty of restaurants, and I stopped at one to take a pot of Earl Grey and a pancake with strawberrys, cream and ice cream.  There are also second hand bookshops and record stores, which I entered and browsed.  There

were quite a few interesting books around, but I only bought one, plus I found another item on my presents list.  Wandering down the road I was accosted by a young lady who wanted to tell me all about WWF and was astounded when I confessed that I had never heard of WWF.  I explained that I don't read the papers and watch little TV apart from sport, and WWF had not crossed my horizon.  She found this hard to believe and asked me on three separate occasions if I really hadn't heard of WWF.  As I recall, she told me it stands for World Wildlife Fund.  Anyway having elicted that she came from Surrey and explained that I already contribute what I can afford to charities of my choice my direct debit, I wished her a Happy Christmas and we parted on good terms.

  I spent the best part of the afternoon before returning home around 6.00pm.  Mark wanted to go and eat at the Epping, so I accompanied him although I did not require sustenance as the pancake had certainly filled a void.  Rob said he would come and pick us up.  He duly came but quickly settled in (arriving just as I was at the bar), and we didn't leave until gone midnight having quaffed severial pints.