The rainbow never sets

to one of our customers, Michael Selios would always be willing to help me. I owe him a great deal, as he was very patient with me.

The first Tuesday in November was Melbourne Cup Day. I marvelled at the way everything seemed to come to a stop in Australia for the duration of the race. Auctions were stopped, and as I looked down Pitt Street from the office windows, there was no tram moving on the road, no car, and hardly any pedestrians. Hazel Lynch, the boss' secretary, had brought her radio, and Stan Burrows, the accountant, made sure that everyone had drawn a horse in the sweep stake. Some time after three, everyone assembled around the radio, listening to the broadcast from Melbourne, and at the finish came great jubilation from those who had won in the sweep, or who had put a bet on the winning horse.

There were no auctions over Christmas. In fact the office closed down between Christmas and the New Year. Colin from the YMCA had invited me to his parents' home in Gosford to spend a couple of days over Christmas with his family. But what to do on Christmas Eve? There was a German church in Goulburn Street, and they had a traditional Christmas Eve service in the afternoon. This was attended mainly by families, and suddenly I felt terribly lonely. Memories of lovely Christmas celebrations with our family came flooding back, and here I was, not knowing a single person at church. There was another young man who seemed all on his own, so I invited him to have dinner with me in a nearby restaurant. I was usually very careful with money and I don't think I had been out in a restaurant before, where I had to pay the bill, but on that night I felt generous. We had a very nice meal together.

On Christmas morning I met Colin at Central Station and we caught the train for Gosford. I hadn't been there by train before. The Hawkesbury River looked beautiful as we approached the bridge and then the train went along plenty of waterways and tunnels before it arrived at Gosford station.

Colin's family were most delightful. They made me very welcome. Christmas Dinner the English/Australian way was quite different to our tradition. Everyone had to wear a silly paper hat, and the meat was turkey and ham and Christmas Pudding. It was a lovely meal. Next day I went for a long walk with Colin through the bush. I nearly trod on a black snake. It was so small that I thought it could not be poisonous, but apparently they are very much so. I didn't let on that it was my birthday. For that year it just had to be ignored.

From the end of June until the end of August there were no sales anywhere in Australia. It was the usual winter break, when most wool buyers went away on holidays. I dearly wanted to see a sheep farm in the inland, and a very kind gentleman from Winchcombe Carsons, one of the selling brokers, arranged for me to stay on one of that firm's sheep property near Nyngan. At some ungodly hour in the morning in July I caught the mail train going to Burke from Sydney Central. My ticket said

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