December 24, 2009. Well, being Christmas eve, I figured I'd treat Bluey to a prezzie. I drove out to the Auto Car Wash in Taree. Hang on, something just occurred to me. Taree is the Aboriginal name for "local fig". Now if you take the 'a' out of Taree, you get Tree. Yeah? Anyway, there was another car in front going through the wash, so I took the opportunity to take a few pics of Bluey waiting its turn. Then the attendant arrived. "Where have you been?" I asked. "I had to put the money into the machine myself!" He remembered me from last time, and saw me taking a few shots with my little Fuji compact. He asked if they were pics for the Odyssey album. "Yes, and I'm hoping you can take a few more of Bluey going through the wash." So I gave him the camera despite his protests about not being familiar with it. "No worries, mate. Just press the little button to turn it on and the bigger one to take a pic. Too easy."

There must be something a bit strange about me. I'd only met the bloke once before, and that was well over a month ago, but he remembered me like it was yesterday. He took some pretty good pics, actually. At the end, as I drove out, I was saying, "This is ridiculous!" He agreed but he was pleased to have participated, and wished me a Happy Christmas. Click here for the photo album.