Thursday February 8th

 Joan is having a Zoom call sometime over the next hour, and I have brought my computer onto the balcony to pass the time with a bit of blogging.

Let me try to mention a number of what I see as distinctive features of Australian life.

Flesh---it being summer, there are acres of male and female flesh exposed. Women wear tight fitting black lycra shorts that expose a great deal of their thighs. And higher up, the neck-lines are very low, often with a considerable exposure of breasts. Men, also, are very often in wop-tops and shorts--and I don't just mean young men--all ages. Older men seem unembarrassed to expose their spindly old legs or their varicose veins.

Tattoos. Ubiquitous...males, females, old, young. Arms, shoulders, legs, necks, faces---whole backs, whole frontal body tattoos. Bald heads. Lots of young girls have tattoos, some with texts like 'love is all.' And some males are, quite frankly, horrific--all exposed flesh tattooed, and presumable the unexposed flesh is also tattooed. But I should also mention that we have seen couple of establishments advertising 'Laser Tattoo Removal.'

Fitness. An obvious fetish here is physical fitness. No row of shops anywhere you go does not have a gym or fitness centre. And as you pass, you can see people at work on weight machines, on treadmills, sometimes even boxing. In the park below us, the runners never stop--sometimes dozens in groups, perhaps running clubs.

Immigrants. I think the immigrant population of Australia is about 30 percent, and as you walk around you here you constantly hear languages other than English being spoken.

Food delivery. In the neighbourhood where we are staying, there are dozens of helmeted guys on electric bicycles delivering food. They often pass by on the paths in the park below our balcony.