Thursday, February 15. Yesterday when I was with Jen, I asked her if she knew anything about the massage place that I keep passing on the way to the mall. She didn’t, but she offered that Joanne, who had picked me up from the airport, was a part time massage therapist, and she would ask her if she would be willing to give me one. So this morning I had a wonderful massage from Joanne. And it was long, probably an hour and 45 minutes! Way above and beyond the call of duty. Plus, she didn’t charge me. That was amazing, since my back has been hurting from the plane ride. I decided to give her the Modello book in exchange. Instead of driving me back to my apartment, I had Joanne drop me off about 3 km from home at the park along the river so I could take a nice walk. Joanne pointed out the direction I needed to walk. So I walked down there, found the path and started walking, but instead of taking me in the right direction it circled me around to the beginning of the park again. Now I had no idea where I was. Luckily, there was a ranger station there, and they were very helpful in giving me the right directions to get back home. It had started to get really hot. By this time, it was lunchtime, so I stopped at the mall at the food court and this time had some Mexican food—also good. Then I made my way back to the apartment. I thought today was going to be a day for an excursion, but no one was available, and I decided that was fine with me. I had some work I needed to get done, I felt good just chilling out more, and watched some more Winter Olympics, which was great. Then I looked up at the clock and noticed I had 15 minutes to get to a movie back at the mall. I had wanted to see The Shape of Water. Strange movie, but very well done. I had an insight that when one has a love in his or her life, it is a very special thing not to be taken lightly, because so many people don’t. I can be content within myself, but to have a love to share one’s life with is very hard to beat. I came home and had leftovers from the Italian restaurant, made arrangements to get together with others for the rest of my time here, did a little planning for my upcoming training, watched some more Olympics, and walked outside to see the night sky. It is a little unnerving to look up at the sky and not see the Big Dipper; instead there is the Southern Cross and all the other constellations look very different. But I’ll be darned if I didn’t see Orion. It’s pretty unmistakable to me. But it didn’t make any sense. So as soon as I got back home I looked it up on the Internet and found that this is the only time of year that Orion can be seen in this hemisphere. Not an overly exciting day, but I was very happy to just chill again. Tomorrow I go on my biggest excursion in Western Australia with my old friend, Georgina, whom I met here about 20 years ago, which was the last time I did a training here. We’re going off somewhere into the wilderness, and I am really looking forward to it. And the day after that, I’ve got to go to work.