05.17.2004 - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I’m at the Melbourne Airport awaiting my flight to Hobart, Tasmania. My week in Victoria has been wonderful. Both of my talks—Thursday at LaTrobe University and Saturday at the Freud Conference—seemed to go well. I had a particularly good reaction from the large audience at the Freud Conference, most of whom are psychoanalysts. This favorable reaction was quite surprising and very pleasing to me. The bookseller at the conference appeared to sell out of copies of Eve’s Seed after I spoke.

The people putting on the conference were wonderful. We had several great meals. In fact, every dinner I had in Melbourne was exceptionally good. On Friday evening I had kangaroo for the first time, and it was very good. The veal dish at an Italian restaurant on Saturday evening was also exceptional.

On Sunday, a group of us went to the Healesville wildlife sanctuary in the Yarra Valley, where we got to see wallabies, kangaroos, platypus, koalas, wombats, echidnas, dingoes, and other native animals up close. Then we went on to the Yering Station Winery for a superb meal.

One of the psychoanalysts who came along on the trip told us about a friend (both he and the friend are Jewish) who decided, to fly to Europe on Emirates Air, because it’s cheaper and, he reasoned, less likely to be attacked. But the friend asked for a kosher meal on the plane. That must have been quite a moment.

I was pleased to find that ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) shows The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

Among the things I’ve learned in my first week in Australia is that most people actually do say “mate” all the time. Much of the language in Australia is similar to that in Britain. They say “lovely” and “perfect” when you place an order. They have interesting names for some items. The best may be “skinny milk” for skim milk. I’ve also learned to order coffee as “long black,” which is strong coffee—two shots of espresso with boiling water added, or “short black,” which is pure espresso. (There is also a “flat white.”)

Now it’s off to “Tassie,” as it’s called both by the island’s inhabitants and by people on the continent. Some of the latter seem to say the word with a hint of contempt, or at least of superiority. Tassie has become the center of the universe to many Australians this week, though, because of the wedding of a Tasmanian girl, Mary Donaldson, to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark. The wedding was telecast live at midnight Friday night and hen shown in instant replays several times on Saturday. At least it took a bit of attention away from the atrocities committed by Americans against Iraqi prisoners.

RSM