- Romance & Rocks

On the Road, USA

Hello to my readers . . . both of you . . . ha, ha . . ?

Earlier this evening I spoke with Paul, who is in Koroit. He gave me the latest updates on a few situations. . . .

A few weeks ago, for you Gothic romance / bodice ripper fans, I mentioned Paul's shore-leave / vacation trip to the sunshine coast where he enjoyed the company of a "young lady of interest". Apparently, that young lady has become even more interesting. On Sunday she returned to Brisbane after spending two weeks in Koroit with Paul and allegedly missing the preceding Wednesday's flight back to Brisbane. (Hereafter, she will be referred to simply as "Miss S".)

Miss S arrived in Cunnamulla a few hours before I departed that southwestern metropolis on my return trip to the USA. It was a pleasure to meet her, chat a bit and have lunch of fish and chips with Miss S and Paul before I caught the twin-prop low-flying plane out of Cunnamulla. She seemed to be quite nice. The reports I have received from the occasionally harsh critics in Koroit have been 100% complementary. Paul and Miss S seemed to like each other quite a bit when she arrived and the reports are, they seemed to like each other quite a bit after spending two weeks together in the not exactly creature comfort filled opal field of Koroit.

Being able to consistently enjoy each other's company while spending two weeks together in the rather luxury-less and often harsh, bulldust covered outback of southwest Queensland, says quite a bit about the nature of their budding relationship - my congratulations and best wishes to the two of them.

Oh, yes, opal mining . . . while Miss S was there, they actually did a bit of opal mining - and I mean that literally, not merely as a euphemism for something else. Miss S decided to take her chances, climb down the ladder and see where the treasures come from. Paul took the jackhammer and demonstrated how it is used by digging a little near a spot of opal in the wall I have known about for at least 4 years - and have meant to attack, but . . . . Much to his surprise as well as delight, he started to find more and better opal within only a few minutes. He pulled out some quite nice material in less than an hour. He has continued to dig there and has found more nice material. On the phone he told me he was planning to do more mining there as soon as we finished talking. I hope he had a very productive day.

.