OK, this was a long day...

Day 4 - Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Well, I’ve realised that writing this much, this late at night, is not sustainable. So this time it really will be shorter…

(or, I could just start earlier? No. That's too logical!)
(and I guess I can add more details later if I get time? There's no law against that...)

Core GSE activities:

1 Toured the port of Stockton

2 Visited City Hall to learn about the city

3 Did a bit of a walking tour of the city with some council volunteers and staff

4 Returned to City Hall to be presented at a Council meeting & sit in on the proceedings

More on the above:

1 Toured the Port of Stockton

Team with Guide Michael at Port of Stockton

Our host Michael was very knowledgeable and very interesting. Stockton is not a container port, it handle bulk goods. Incoming: cement, fertilizer, manufactured goods, molasses... Outgoing: Corn Sugar, sulphur, some produce... I'm sure there's more of both, but I'm tired, and my notes are all the way in the other room...
Very interesting. I asked heaps of questions. Anyone surprised? I thought not.

2 Visited City Hall to learn about the city
Thanks to the Vice Mayor for hosting us. We had a look around the council rooms. I fiddled with their electronic voting system. Was interesting.

WW2 Memorial in Central Stockton sponsored by our lunch date for tomorrow, Stockton Rotary

3 Did a bit of a walking tour of the city with some council volunteers and staff

Stockton Ports in Training

Our thanks to Manuel and his team. We saw a lot of the inner city's redeveloped parks and buildings, and some historic ones too. The tour of the new sports facility was a highlight. They host ice hockey, indoor soccer and arena football. The footballers were about to train, but we left too early, so here's a shot of the baseballers training next door. This was taken from the verandah of one of the bars. Very civilised...

4 Returned to City Hall to be presented at a Council meeting & sit in on the proceedings
We were special guests! Dave and Westy both spoke well. We met out mate councillor Clem Lee again, and heard him speak about graffiti again. We believe you Clem, it is a big problem. I hope the deputy chief of police helps you get ti sorted.
Speaking of police...

Sarah's new friends. She befriended them at the hockey ground!

Non Core GSE Activities:

1 - Shouted lunch by a lovely Rotarian by the name of Tom manages a local mall with 91 shops. He told us which shops have fashions that will be 'in' in Oz in a year or so. Bribes accepted if you want to know. We had lunch at a shop named 'California Pizza' and I had salad! Are you all proud??

2 - Went for 12 km run with Sarah and her host Kristen this morning. 37min out (with the girls!) 32:30 back by myself. Not too bad, given a lack of condition. Fair bit to do between now and Burnie 10 though!

3 - Drinks and Nibbles in the new(ish) Sheraton tonight with my hosts followed by dinner with Sarah and her hosts. Pretty classy food. I just ate roe for the first time. Nothing to write home about, but good enough to write on the Internet... Sarah manged her latest cheese burger with aplomb. I think that's four in four days?

4 - Have had some fantastic discussions with locals about their accents, their love of the pledge of allegiance, their attitudes to the poor, their social services policies, their policing methods... and more. It's amazing what you get away with when you play the 'stupid foreigner' card. No, seriously, people have been very open and willing to share, and haven't taken any offence to my questions, which is great.

Signing off for another night...