Okay, here’s the thing.  I need to make an announcement, but I’m not sure just when I should do it.  I reckon now is as good a time as any, so as to give people a chance to prepare.  You see, I’m about to go overseas for a while, and that means the Australian dollar will crash sometime in the next couple weeks.  It always does when I go overseas, so I feel there is an obligation on my part to alert the nation.  The last time it occurred was when I left Australia on October 8, 2008.  What can I say?  That time I didn’t warn people;  the dollar had been up in the 90s, and there had been recent speculation about parity.  Still, I should have known, and I should have warned people.  This time (again, the dollar is in the low 90s) I want to Do The Right Thing.  So here it is:

I am going overseas in mid-May.  Take whatever financial precautions you deem necessary.

I’m not certain whether the Prime Minister, or his Finance Minister, or the Treasurer read my blog regularly, (possibly not, as they would quickly learn that I think they are prats), but if anyone out there (in Australia) happens to see one of them, you might mention it.  Just in case.

I wish I understood the relationship between my travels and the Aussie dollar.  I know enough about scientific research to know the difference between causation and correlation, but I’ll be buggered if I can work out how this relationship works.  It seems An Unlikely Coincidence (Okay, I know it’s too soon to be plugging my book, given that it isn’t published yet, but I just like to know that you have that name in your memory bank.)  Anyway, it really does seem unlikely to be a coincidence that it happens every time I go overseas;  I mean, it isn’t like I’m the Australian Wheat Board or something.  I don’t  understand how it works, I just know that history does not lie.  Well, yes it does.  Or is.  But you know what I mean. I have an unbroken record here, so you all just need to be aware of the situation.

I normally feel a bit uneasy about broadcasting my travels too widely, however this time I am more relaxed about it as I have people living in my house while I’m away.  It’s what you have to do when you have cats.  I hope to be able to share some of the interesting bits that I encounter along the way, so do stay tuned.  I’m going to visit some interesting places and do some interesting things, so it should be . . .  well, interesting.

Meanwhile, I refer you back to the article entitled Is Cruising For You? (August last year). I will be taking a short cruise this year, from Copenhagen to Stockholm, with three days in St. Petersburg, so be prepared for some great photos!  I recently bought an iPhone in the hope that by July or so I shall have learned how to use one or two features that may help me on my journey.  For now, however,  I’m just trying to remember where in world I’ve put my sucky bags.             MM