... who doesn't check their flight departure time. I can't believe I did it again! I booked a flight from Darwin to Cairns for 7th June when I was in Broome. I checked out of my hostel this morning, storing my stuff before leaving for the airport for my flight tonight... at 1.40. It dawned on me as I was writing the date on a postcard. 1.40 on 7th June was... this morning. I'd just missed my non-refundable, non-changeable $279 flight. I spoke to a travel agent and she advised me to go to the airport as if nothing was wrong and act shocked when they told me I had got the date wrong. With a bit of luck, they'll charge me a small fee and put me on tonight's flight. Worst case scenario, they'll make me pay the full whack for a replacement ticket (now $319) or tell me the flight is full. As I see it, I don't really have any other options, so I'm going to head to the airport at midnight and try to talk/cry my way onto that plane. Am still marvelling at my own stupidity...

Watched the sunset on Lamaroo Beach this evening, then had a lo-o-ong conversation with a homeless woman. I'd seen her on the Esplanade before, wheeling around her bags and two pigeons in a pet carrier. She would sit on a wall looking out to sea and remove the birds from the carrier one at a time and show them the view, while stroking and talking to them. I thought it was really sweet that someone loved a couple of manky old pigeons (rats from the sky, as a friend used to call them) in a place like this with its magnificent birds. There are lots of ibis-like birds in the parks here, with shiny oil coloured plumage, white feathery bearded necks and beady eyes. They hang around in groups and just mooch around pecking at things with their long beaks and looking up to gaze at you. There are also punky brightly coloured pigeons scuttling along, Willie Wagtails, which are black and white and waggle their tails a lot, and Splendid Fairy Wrens, which are electric blue.

The lady told me she had rescued one pigeon on the Manly Ferry in Sydney and was trying to get it to eat again. When it was healthy, she planned to buy it an aeroplane ticket to Sydney and get people to release it there. The other one she'd had for seven years and it had a damaged wing. She was Polish and explained to me that all world events revolved around her and that all important people were Jewish - including all royal families - and that they wanted to silence her because she had seen her Jewish grandparents in heaven in a vision. In 1983, her grandmother had sent her a letter asking her to send some slippers - "kupchas" in Polish - and this meant that Alan Bond would win the American Cup and her grandmother would die. She went on and on like this and was so passionate and lucid yet so clearly crazy. I wondered what had happened to her and whether she had family and friends, but I could barely get a word in edgeways as she was hell-bent on her tirade. It made me very thankful that although I may get my flight departure times wrong, I have a reasonable degree of sanity left.

I've run into loads of people I know in Darwin, which is nice as it makes me feel like a local. A popular local, at that. Look at me with all my friends! Or not so much... Anyway, I bumped into Charlotte and Steve - of falling off the cliff in Kalbarri fame. It turns out Steve spent two days in hospital having CAT scans and X-rays but then they carried on with their trip. He still has back pains but feels very lucky that nothing was broken. Was pleased to see them and glad that he is ok! Also relieved that Alan insisted on getting the emergency services rather than fashioning a neck brace out of flip-flops and baseball caps as certain people suggested. Hmmm.