We've been to Australia as a belated end of working life treat. We used a fair amount of taxis. On the way to an airport, I asked the driver if he'd always lived in Oz. He went 0-60 almost instantaneously! His take on where he was brought up was totally new to me. I think the gist was that his people came from around what is now northern Kenya, Ethiopia & Somalia. He berated Haile Selassie, Mussolini, Britain & colonialism. He was angry. He went back to at least World War Two. He said that the man who caused all this list his job after the end of the war. Winston Churchill I offered. Never heard of him, but your Queen forced us to leave our own country.

A few taxis later, I asked the black guy driving the taxi if he'd seen the hoards of talent show hopefuls queuing along the street the day before. Of course not, he said, Sunday is not for working. It's to dedicate to working for God. He explained his Ghanaian upbringing made him take his Christian beliefs very seriously.

Another taxi guy originally from India, started talking about the cricket but then got on to religion. His take was why do we all fall out about God, there is one God, we should agree about it.

Another Indian guy had moved cities due to the migration to Australia rules & was determined to work hard to earn the Australian citizenship for which he yearned.

We met some real characters as our travel custodians:- from Vietnam, a "Greek Marxist Russian", Lebanese, Scottish, Sikh, Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Oz & Lebanon.

These conversations lasted 5 minutes, half an hour? We certainly had a range of different stimuli!

Chatted to anyone new recently?