Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

An e-mail from Australia, from Desiree Crossman, with John Hopkins:

Subject: G’day from Down Under!

Hello all,

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve written because we have been traveling, and the line in my motel room doesn’t work so I’ve been running around trying to find a line to connect to. We arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday morning. From the airport, it was a two-hour ride to the Island. But we stopped to get something to eat at a small cafe in the country before getting to the Island. But we are here.

The area that we are in is nothing but country. It’s quite nice and it looks alot like the midwest with farms, cows, horses, etc….though they don’t speak with a western drawl. Melbourne looks alot like America and it’s nice to go to a country where they speak fluent English. In Malaysia, English is a second language there but here it’s a bit better. When we stopped in Singapore for our connection, they, too, speak English. BUT, they speak sssoooooooo fast that it would totally pass you that they are speaking English. They are probably the fastest English speakers I have ever encountered.

Anyway, back to Australia. Yes, we are out in the sticks here but more like country. The island is really nice, the little town is a small racing town where everything evolves around bikes. It’s pretty neat, they also have surf shops, cafes…it’s your average small town and around it are huge pastures and farms. The island isn’t very big, but big enough to hold a Grand Prix.

The weather, here, however is freezing cold! It is so cold, it’s a complete change from Malaysia. John loves it, he say the tires might actually work in this type of weather.(Let’s hope so). We also saw little joeys(kangaroos), they are the cutest things. There is a small petting type farm that is a home to the joeys and they are so tiny. John is doing a Dorna trip to go pet them, I envy him.

Righto, I have to go now but wanted to let you know that we are down under and it’s pretty cool. Hope all is well. The Bali tragedy is hitting here pretty badly. Sete Gibernau and his sister were supposed to go there for a small holiday before heading to Aussie Land on Sunday evening but luckily they didn’t go. It’s really sad, it’s their 9/11. Hopefully the GP will help get their minds off of it.

Des