Cougar Connection

Today I had lunch with Kathleen, who has yet to be mentioned on here since the story me meeting her got lost in that two month posting gap. So as one step toward catching up here's that story. If you thought the Huangbaiyu story was a good small-world tale, check this out.

You'll soon read about the trip that Eric and Steven and I took, driving and camping up the New South Wales coast to Brisbane (from where Steven and I went to Longreach and the Whitsundays - but that will have to wait until I am on my own computer with photos). We camped in a great spot overlooking the ocean at Yuraygir (that's you-ray-gee-ah) National Park, and the area around is a marine reserve. When I spotted a dive shop in Wooli, a nearby town of about 500 people, I popped in and asked if they had a spot in a dive group the next day, and they did. So there I was, on a boat with a dozen people, most of whom had driven up to dive from Manly (north headland of Sydney Harbour). After a fabulous dive in Anemone Bay (more fish than I've ever seen, turtles, manta ray) I was shivering on the boat next to an American woman. I'd told her earlier I'm from Pasadena, but she knew better and asked where I was really from. Philadelpia area. Oh, me too - where? Cherry Hill. Um, me too - which high school? East. Yup. What year....?

What are the odds? How many people from my high school class live in Australia, let alone go diving from a remote town on the central NSW coast the same day I do? (Cause you are wondering - no we didn't know each other, but we know lots of the same people.)