Out of touch

When I lived in Sydney it was easy to stay in touch with news and current affairs.  The radio was always on, I commuted to work and read the newspaper on the train, I even watched Lateline occasionally.  Luke is fanatical about the rugby, the NRL, the cricket and about a hundred other sports, so I even knew some of the sports results. 

These days I am completely out of touch.  I bought an expensive tuner, but the only station that's clear is Triple J which is re-broadcast from the LHI Radio Station.  I have about a million TV stations, but I'm at work in the restaurant in the evenings so I never watch the news.  The papers are meant to arrive on the afternoon plane.  However, they're the first thing to be offloaded if there's too much weight on the plane. 

A few weeks ago we had terrible weather on a Saturday.  Saturday is our busiest day.  There are flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Port Macquarie.  On this particular Saturday, they were all cancelled.  Some Pinetrees guests were stuck at Lord Howe and really needed to get home.  Others were stuck in Sydney airport but were desperate to get to Lord Howe.  Everyone has to wait around all day because QantasLink doesn't cancel flights until the last minute (sensibly - in case the weather clears).  The housekeepers clean the rooms and make them up for new guests, but then the flight is cancelled and the old guests move back in.  The rooms have to be done again tomorrow. 

On the way home at the end of a long day I stopped at Joys Shop, the Lord Howe supermarket.  The Saturday newspapers were on the counter.  I was amazed.  I asked Rodney: "How did you get the papers today?  There weren't any flights!".  He sighed: "They're last Saturday's papers".