We went to the Hunter Valley on the weekend and were fortunate enough to chance upon the Kurri Kurri markets where a talent guest was in full swing. It was wonderful to see the local kids having a go - and even nicer because the Emcee was so encouraging. He had words of warmth and wisdom for all the acts. And the encouragement was well-founded. The kids were all, even the nervous ones, very confident - and lots of them were very talented. A couple of them were determined to be music teachers "when they grow up ".

Also in Kurri Kurri we cast our votes in the NSW State Election. Because we were away from our home electorate we had to "absent vote" and suspected that would entail the Returning Officer wading though reams of paper to be able to "mark us off". Not so. He picked up a Palm Tungsten E from the desk in front of him and searched thereon for our particulars and, once found, handed over our ballot papers. Very impressive. Amazing what you can find once you're out of the city.