Kanga Kanga Roo Roo

Ahhhh Australia. I don't think there is a more beautiful place in the world. That one should please a friend of mine who guffawed and then choked on her champagne (as a good Australian will do) when I credited the Kiwis with the wonder of the chocolate-covered Arnotts cookie. I mean, biscuit. Well, Australia has it right, in both the cookie and countryside business.

On safari in India, I contented myself against disappointment by accepting that even if I did not see animals, they were there, watching me, smelling me, just out of the reach of my simple senses. In Australia, on the road from Melbourne to Sydney, I did the same. And, as in India, I was rewarded with actual sightings. We counted five kangaroos, or are those wallabies? I don't know the difference. We found a porcupine (pronounced porky-pine when you actually see them) and we made it ruffle up its hazardous plumage. We didn't see koalas. And last night, on Manly Beach, what may have been a wombat to a North American was really just a large rat. I prefer to recall it as a wombat because it sounds more adventurous. Of course, wombats probably don't cruise along ivy-covered fences sampling from rubbish bins at a heavily populated beach. But, whatever. Maybe that large cockroach just behind me at the restaurant was a wombat too. I steel myself against flinching because, while traveling, it's all safari.

As always, Sydney rocks. By night, the Opera House glows like a phosphorescent crustacean against an glimmering, electrified skyline. The sharp eyes of my now happily unemployed husband spotted a glowing rodeo of bats frantically circling above the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They covered the entire expanse but did not stray from the spotlights illuminating their arcs and dips. We see lots of people kissing, and it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Who wouldn't want to kiss here? This city is perfect for all kinds of petting and patting, maybe on the waterfront in front of screaming seagulls, on street corners while busy business people thread around each other, on board ferries, trains, monorails, even. Mmm, it's nice to have my husband back.