The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 290

in theway of funds and had been doing casual jobs along the way to keep my tripgoing. All of that was about to change.

I had gleaned all I could about the Australian system fromthe internet. All of the results going back years were available in an archiveonline so I had memorised the results from a couple of the big meetings takingplace on the day in question. Much as I was enjoying the feeling of the sun onBondi Beach, it must already be around 2pm by my calculations, so I needed toget off the beach and into a local TAB office.

I had planned things carefully, and didn’t go crazy in thefirst place I visited. It was a bar with a betting shop tacked onto the side.There, I had A$20 on each of the first two winners and then moved on to anotherbar.

I didn’t want to attract too much attention, which wasn’teasy, even without backing winners. The punters in the bars were curious whothis young English woman was backing horses. It’s fair to say, I didn’t fit theprofile of the average punter.

Over the afternoon, I visited four or five TAB outlets,winning increasing amounts in each. By the end of the day I had well overA$2000 in brightly coloured notes. That would be enough to substantiallyupgrade my New Year celebrations.

I booked myself a proper hotel for two nights, which enabledme to rid myself of my backpack which I had been carrying around with meeverywhere. Leaving it in the hostel wasn’t a good idea. After that I went onone of my regular shopping sprees to spruce myself up for the evening ahead.

Once I was scrubbed up and suitably attired, no longerlooking like a grubby backpacker, I got myself down to the harbour. There I waslucky enough to find a cruise still taking bookings for the evening. I saw theNew Year in in style, watching the fireworks over the Opera House after agorgeous dinner on-board the boat.

The dining had been arranged at long tables with no formalseating plan, so I hadn’t looked obviously alone, and soon made theacquaintance of others along my table. Just as in New York, I ended up having afantastic time, making me reflect once again that New Year wasn’t so bad if youwere in the right place to enjoy it.

With plenty of money left, I went sightseeing the next day,doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk, then dining at the Sydney Tower revolvingrestaurant. I must have eaten half my own body weight in there, taking theopportunity to try all sorts of exotic and local meats I hadn’t encounteredbefore.

Both Indonesia and Australia had been once-in-a-lifetimeexperiences which I had now been fortunate enough to enjoy twice in mine. Idefinitely made more of both this second time around, leading me to wonder howmuch better all our lives could have been if we all been given a second bite ofthe cherry.

I had certainly been making good use of mine. Perhaps not tobegin with, when I was still learning how this worked and making mistakes, butcertainly since the wake-up call of what had happened to Gary. I had beenhaving a lot fun but there was the ever-looming reality that time was runningout like sand through an hourglass. I now had only a few years left as an adult.

Now it was the year before Australia and I was back at home,three years now before my mother’s death. Perhaps if I could stop her drinkingnow, it would be in time to save her.

I got up, got dressed and made my way downstairs. My roomhad looked the same as ever, but there were notable changes in the rest of thehouse since my last visit. The most obvious of these was that it was muchcleaner and tidier. It was not a show home by any means, but far from the rankstate it had been the last time I had been there. That meant she hadn’t totallygiven up yet. That gave me hope.

There was no sign of my mother, but some evidence she hadbeen around this morning. There was an empty coffee cup and a small,crumb-covered plate and butter knife next to the sink. This was also anencouraging sign. At least she was still eating and drinking properly at thistime and hadn’t yet reached the alcohol-for-breakfast stage.

Even so, there was evidence of the previous evening’sdrinking. On the kitchen surface next to the sink was an empty wine glass andtwo empty wine bottles next to it. Whether or not she had drunk all of that theprevious night, I had no idea, but I wouldn’t have put it past her. At leastthere were no spirits – or none that I could see, anyway.

I glanced across at the calendar, which showed that it wasMonday, so she had probably gone to work. If I remembered rightly, she stillhad her job at this time but probably not for much longer. Around this time shehad become so unreliable that the college had sacked her.

Losing her job had been the tipping point that had seen herdescend into all-day drinking. At least while she still had the job there wassome structure to give her a semblance of normality. If I could stop herdrinking before that happened, maybe there was still hope. I had two days totry and convince her.

But in order to do that, I first had to find her, and sheproved to be remarkably elusive. I tried ringing and texting her mobile from myNokia, but drew a blank there, too. I didn’t want to go out in case I missedher, so I stayed at home all day, assuming she would be home straight afterwork. Unfortunately that was not the case. I waited and waited until long afterdark, but there was no sign.

I made good use of my time while I was waiting. I had cometo the conclusion that a little future knowledge could come in very useful inmy later trips, so I spent most of the day on the internet using the laughablyslow laptop in my bedroom.

I went through every year from 1990 onwards, reading,writing down and memorising key