Down Under.

Late last year I joined the book club in our village. We have, I think, 13 members and it's proving to be a lot of fun. I have been forced to read books that I would not necessarily choose...some have been stinkers...but a couple have been amazing.

Last month we decided to read Mr. Bill Bryson's book...'Down under'. We had a gap in our list and the ladies thought that seeing they had an 'Aussie' in their midst that we would all enjoy it. And enjoy it we did...mostly.

After reading Bill's account of life "Down Under" I was at a loss trying to decide what the ladies would think of my home country. He definitely had an encyclopedic knowledge of utter ridiculous and far fetched facts in regard to Australia. He also delighted in elaborately describing every venomous, toxic and dangerous beast, insect and fish that the country had to offer, happily stating that "Australia has more things that can kill you than anywhere else!"

He certainly put the fear of God into me and I've grown up in the place, spending a number of years in QLD without as much as a jellyfish sting or snake bite! His hilarious but worrying comment....

"If not stung or pronged to death, you may be fatally chomped to death by a crocodile or sharks, or dragged out to sea by a current, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the outback".

...had the ladies pretty worried. One lady in fact stated that she never wanted to go near the place!

I tried to reassure them all by regaling them with stories of my favourite places, only stopping to embellish a little here and there with stories of Sand Flies, Taipans and Funnel Web spiders....

I even tried to put it into perspective for them..."now I'm not going to lie to you, everything Bill said is true...more or less. Yes I have woken to find a red back spider abseiling above my head, have lived in an area where Taipan snakes were lurking in the undergrowth, have diligently shaken the washing at my friend's house in Sydney in case of Funnelweb spiders, have swum on the reef with a stinger suit on...yes I have cheated death on a number of occasions...and nothing frightens me more than hurtling down the M1 at 75 milers per hour!

Bill may have frightened the living daylights out of all of them with comments like..."Australia is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the continents, where even the soil is a fossil" and pointed out that..."our constellations are upside down and our seasons are back to front" but his overriding opinion was positive in that he really seemed to like the place stating..."In short there is no place like it!"

Bill has also written about his experiences travelling through Europe, living in the U.K. and in North America. Having lived in U.K. for over 18 months I think I might have a look at his book "Notes From a Small Island" and then I can go back to the ladies at book club where they can possibly help with my confusion!

Robx