SXSW 2007

This is my travel blog. It started as a way for people to keep up with my trip to Australia to watch the 2006/7 Ashes series, and continued with my trip to SXSW 2007 in Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas in March '07.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Finally today the guy from the Great Southern Railroad got in touch. I had emailed him while back in Perth and had been waiting for a reply ever since. The good news is that they will refund us the cost of the Alice Springs to Darwin leg of our trip (approximately £450 each). The bad news is he was less than helpful over the costs we incurred during our enforced stay in Darwin. He suggested we send him the receipts for our flights and hotel costs and he would see what he could do. He had better come up with something as there are plenty of no-win no-fee solicitors in the UK that would be happy to try and get their pound of flesh out of them. It will be a lot cheaper to just pay us our expenses than employ lawyers to argue it out from 12,000 miles away. The ball’s in their court anyway so we will wait and see what transpires.
On a lighter note I visited the old Melbourne Gaol today. It was a hanging prison, and the last sentence was carried out in 1967. The Gallows are still in situ but are not the original ones - they were made for the Mick Jagger Ned Kelly film and fitted back in place for filming. Ned Kelly was hung there back in Victorian days as were approx. 160 others over the years. At least one of them was innocent - a man was hung in the 1920’s for the rape and murder of a child here in Melbourne. The main evidence was hair from the victim supposedly found in his bed. A journalist researching the case recently found the original samples of hair in papers relating to the case and modern DNA analysis proved the hair was not that of the victim. It wasn’t a very cheery place but it was good to get inside as yes, you will be pleased to hear it is raining! The forecast for Christmas day is not good so we have managed to get booked in for a Christmas luncheon buffet at one of the hotels on the Southbank, overlooking the Yarra river. So no barbie on the beach for us.
Moz and Tutes have been out for the day down the Great Ocean Highway and are due back soon. I plan to see the Ashes urn tomorrow - It’s definitely here now as I saw it on the TV being put in it’s showcase in the Melbourne Museum. We may go to the Crown Casino tonight - hopefully I recoup some of my losses from Darwin!

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